


Supernatural meta challenges & Scavenger hunts

by karoffelbrei89



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Meta, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, Supernatural meta, cross-posted from tumblr, spn meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 14:35:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 20,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17024478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karoffelbrei89/pseuds/karoffelbrei89
Summary: Yes, those were a thing. Posting here as an archive.





	1. The Great Meta Scavenger Hunt: 6x11 vs 9x05

**The Great Meta Scavenger Hunt: 6x11 vs 9x05**

**Or: You can’t cheat death (unless you are a Winchester)**

Part of Lizzy’‘s [Great Meta Scavenger Hunt](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/154947961433/goodfemalecharacters-replied-to-your-postnow-i).

It all starts with Sam’s death. Naturally. In season six Sam is brought back by Cas (who is declared a honorary Winchester at the end of 6x20), but he is missing his soul. In season nine Dean avoids Sam’s almost death by making him agree to be Gadreel’s vessel, and in return he has to (unwillingly) share his body.

Both times people Sam considers his family take away his agency and decide for him. They do what they think they have to do, what they think is the best for Sam, even though Sam was ready to sacrifice himself both in 5x22 and 8x23. Both times the return of Sam leads to drastic consequences.

Judging by the events of 6x13 the return of a soulless Sam probably caused many deaths that normal Sam would have avoided. In season nine Sam’s possesion by Gadreel directly leads to Kevin’s death in 9x09.

Both times Sam destroyed the natural order (even though it wasn’t his own doing). Both times the consequences of doing so were rather painfull.

What we see as a bigger theme in both seasons, is also something we see in detail in both 6x11 and 9x05.

In 6x11 Dean has to wear Death’s ring and do his job for one day. He refuses to kill a young girl, which in return causes the death of a nurse who wouldn’t have died otherwise. The lesson death tried to teach Dean here is that every time he and his brother returned from death and destroyed the natural order it had consequences. People died because of them, even if they weren’t aware of it (which is also a nice call back to 1x12 where Dean’s life is directly exchanged for another men’s life).

In 9x05 it is Chef Leo who refuses to die and destroys the natural order. He is even willing to kill other people in order to survive. This of course brings us back to 6x11 again, where Sam is willing to kill Bobby in order to survive as well (as he fears that getting his soul back will kill him). Both men use witchcraft/spells to complete their goal.

6x11 ends with Dean once again overstepping Sam’s agency in getting his soul back, even though it is not what Sam wants. Furthermore both times someone is messing with Sam’s head. In 6x11 Death builds in a wall in Sam’s mind, in order to make him forget his memories from hell (but also everything he did while he was soulless). In season nine Gadreel is messing with Sam’s memory as well.

Both seasons (six and nine), as well as the indiviual episodes (6x11 and 9x05) deal with themes such as death as part of the natural order, the consequences of destroying said order and the refusal to accept the own death/the death of a loved one. Both times the overstepping of Sam’s agency plays a vital part. But whereas season six lacks to follow these themes through the end of the season, season nine uses them as a perfect build up for the latter part of season nine. But that’s a story for another time.


	2. So what are you gonna do? You’re just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?

**So what are you gonna do? You’re just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?**

**Themes of family & home aka “The Apple Pie Life” in Supernatural season openers Or The Great Meta Scavenger Hunt, Round 2**

Here it is finally. As always I blame Lizzy that this got so long (and my inabelity to write proper short crack meta) **  
**

There we go again. The task is this: “Rank either all the season openers OR season finales 1 to 12 (or 1 to 11). Pick a certain metric to rank them by, e.g. by character (Sam, Dean, Baby, Cas, Bobby, Mary or John, idk, Sheriff Jody Mills) or by typical meta themes, motifs, symbols etc, or by relationship (for example crowlatron, or destiel), or an analytical lens such as feminist or queer reading, etc. “ ([x](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/155229341813/the-great-meta-scavenger-hunt-round-2-the-end-of))

And as much as I was tempted to write the Crowlatron one, I decided for another theme. A theme, some might say,[ I’m a wee bit obssesed with](http://nerdylittleshit.tumblr.com/post/133299926162/you-dont-ever-want-something-more-dean) (shhh, I just want them to be happy). Where season finales are usually about deconstructions, season openers tend to be more happier episodes, with the Winchesters finally able to enjoy some domestic bliss (no, not really, this is still Supernatural). 

So let’s have a closer look:

**1x01 Pilot**

This episode is actually full with themes of home, families and the domestic/normal life vs the hunter life. After all this is where the show has its origins, and to establish the hunter life, we need to contrast it to the apple pie life. **  
**

We start right with the opening scene, where we see the picture perfect American family, the Winchesters, as we later learn. Fans of the genre of course already know that peacefull scenes like these aren’t made to last, and soon enough an evil force destroys the perfect image.

As others noted before, the scene where John passes baby Sam to Dean also marks the moment Dean became metaphorically Sam’s parent. 

Speaking of Sam: the very next scene shows us Sam as an young adult, a student at Stanford and his loving and caring girlfriend Jessica. The most important event in his life is his job interview on monday. Nothing out of the ordinary.

For a moment we are meant to believe that the little baby from the teaser lived a normal life after all, despite the horror his family went through. Until we meet Dean, and learn that for Sam the ordinary is the strange.

> SAM: _The weapon training, and melting the silver into bullets? Man, Dean, we were raised like warriors._
> 
> DEAN: _So what are you gonna do? You’re just gonna live some normal, apple pie life? Is that it?_
> 
> SAM: _No. Not normal. Safe._
> 
> DEAN: _And that’s why you ran away._
> 
> SAM: _I was just going to college. It was Dad who said if I was gonna go I should stay gone. And that’s what I’m doing._

The brothers haven’t even been on their first hunt together when the show establish something very important: that there are two worlds, the world of the normal and the world of the hunters, and that those two don’t mix well. You can just live one of these lives; you are either in or you are out. And if you are a Winchesters you hardly ever have a choice in it.

It is also this episode that marks Mary, their mother, as a symbol for the normal life they have lost. Sam asks Dean if he thinks their mother would have wanted this life for their sons. Up until 4x03 and later 5x13 Mary is portrayed as the innocent victim, and as the life that could have been/the normal life, most heartbreakingly of course in 2x20. And even after the reveal that Mary was a hunter herself and had made a deal with Azazel, one thing remained true: that Mary never wanted her sons to grow up as hunters. This makes her the first Winchester who tried to escape the hunting life.

Part of the domestic life (at least for the Winchesters) seems to be also a long term romantic relationship. The two times Sam has left behind the hunter life (in season 1 and 8) he had been in a relationship (first Jessica, later Amelia), and so was Dean in season 6 (with Lisa). The difference of course, as Sam tells Dean in this episode, is that Jess never knew Sam was a hunter, and neither did Amelia later. In contrast to Lisa, who was fully aware of Dean’s past, when she started a relationship with him. And where Sam left the hunter life in its entirety behind him, Dean was never fully able to do so (but we get more in detail to this in 6x01 and 8x01).

Furthermore the motw also fits thematically to both the aspects of home and family. The woman in white, Constance, tells her victims that she can never go home, yet she urges them to drive her to her old home, before she kills them. Her family seemed happy on the surface, the way the Winchesters did in the opener. But both families had dark secrets to hide. Constance’s husband cheated on her, which resulted in Constance killing first her children and later herself, the children’s death reported as an accident.

Mary never told her husband the truth about her past as a hunter and the deal she made (though the show is a bit unclear whether or not she remembered said deal). The Winchester’s perfect marriage only became perfect after Mary’s death, as Dean later reveals in 5x16.

The three homes we see in the episode (the Winchester’s home in Lawrence, Sam & Jess’s home, Constance’s home) became places of pain, despair and death. The women who stay at home (a very traditional feminine role) or in Constance’s case return home, end up dead (the ghost of Constance is “killed” again by her dead children). All three women are women in white, dressed in white nightgowns. Two of them were wifes and mothers (Mary & Constance), one of them a girlfriend (Jess). All three relationships were based on lies (Mary never told John she was a hunter, and neither did Sam tell Jess; Constance’s husband cheated on her).

1x01 separetes the world of the hunters from the world of the normal, and yet shows us that evil takes place where we feel the most safe: in our homes and in our families. Relationships and families that appear perfect on the surface are destroyed by the secrets that lie underneath. You can’t outrun your past. And just as Constance neither Sam or Dean can go home again. 

 

**2x01 In My Time of Dying  
**

Even though this episode is full of fun Winchesters family traditions, such as cheating death & making deals, it hardly contains themes of home & family. What it gives is a little more inside on how John’s absence forced Dean to become Sam’s parent, but furthermore, to take care of his father as well, even though the roles should have reversed. 

> JOHN: _You know, when you were a kid, I’d come home from a hunt, and after what I’d seen, I’d be, I’d be wrecked. And you, you’d come up to me and you, you’d put your hand on my shoulder and you’d look me in the eye and you’d… You’d say “It’s okay, Dad”. Dean, I’m sorry._
> 
> DEAN: _What?_
> 
> JOHN: _You shouldn’t have had to say that to me, I should have been saying that to you. You know, I put, I put too much on your shoulders, I made you grow up too fast.  You took care of Sammy, you took care of me. You did that, and you didn’t complain, not once.  I just want you to know that I am so proud of you._
> 
> DEAN: _This really you talking?_
> 
> JOHN: _Yeah. Yeah, it’s really me._

Dean’s childhood stopped the moment his mother died. Instead of his father he became the one who took care of his family, and tried to keep everything together. It of course also resulted in the unhealthy codepency between the brothers, and the reason why they are only able to have long term romantic relationships as long as the other brother isn’t around (for a more detailled meta go read [@k-vichan](https://tmblr.co/m4FImMInGlX_QoCekzgv66w) exellent [love-triangel-metas](https://k-vichan.tumblr.com/tagged/greatest-love-triangle-ever)). 

Speaking of homes, we have to mention the Impala. Just as Dean his car is on the brink of death, and as Bobby points out, at a point beyond repair. It is Sam who insits to keep the car, the same way he reminds Dean to keep fighting. Of course everyone’s favourite “The Impala represents Dean’s soul”-reading applies here. But furthermore the car also represents the brothers only home, up until they move into the bunker (where Bobby’s house and later Rufus’ cabin serve as homes as well, they never in fact trully belong to the Winchesters). 

**3x01 The Magnificent Seven**

Ahhh, season three. Dean has only one year left to live, and in this episode he shows us he wants to live his last year to the fulliest. From having a threesome with the Doublemint twins, a bacon cheeseburger for breakfast, to Envy even calling him “ _a walking billboard of gluttony and lust_. “ Dean is as far away from the apple pie life as he could be. And yet it only takes episode two and Lisa Braeden, who turns from Gumby Girl to the potential mother of his child, to make his attitude crumble, ultimately resulting in the reveal of Dean dreaming of a domestic life with her in 3x10.

This episode also marks the first time a married hunter couple appears, Tamara and Isaac. So far all the hunters we met (John, Bobby, Ellen) had lost their husband/wife, all of them to supernatural caused deaths, or have never been married in the first place. Of course this marriage ends tragic as well, as Isaac later dies (isn’t it interesting that the only hunter couple who surived on Supernatural are Jesse & Cesar, the only non-straight couple?). And it is revealved that they only became hunters after a monster killed their daughter.

> POSSESED ISAAC: _Like that night those things came to our house… came … for our daughter!_

This marks another home that got destroyed, another seemingly happy family, whose lives ended in tragedy. 

Next to that the first victims they found were a family as well, who died in their own home. 

**4x01 Lazarus Rising**

Not much to see here, I’m afraid. This marks the first time Dean calls Bobby a father (figure).

> DEAN: _You’re about the closest thing I have to a father._

This of course is a direct recall to 3x16 and Bobby’s line “ _Family doesn’t end with blood_ ”, one of the shows biggest themes. It is also worth noticing that it is Bobby who Dean calls, after he is unable to reach Sam, Bobby he goes to, and later Bobby who he takes with him to summon Castiel. 

Speaking of, this episode of course is the beginning of Destiel, and if this doesn’t give you romantic/domestic vibes, than what will (after all, nothing says _“I love you_ ” as stabbing someone in the heart). 

**5x01 Sympathy for the Devil**

And we stay with Cas. Even though it isn’t until 5x13 that Cas becomes part of the team (team free will, that is), and not until 6x20 that he officially becomes part of the family, we already see a change in Dean’s relationship to Cas in this episode, compared to season 4. Whereas before Dean struggeled to fully trust Cas, Cas is now on top of the list of Dean’s priorities. And he seems genuinely heartbroken after Chuck told him Cas is dead (spoiler alert: he is not). Because it confirms just something Dean has long been afraid of: that people close to him, people he cares about, end up dead. And it’s all because of him. **  
**

Also, another time Bobby is called Dean’s father, this time by Meg, who calls Bobby Dean’s “ _surrogate daddy_ ”. Interesting enough though that the father-son-dynamic takes mostly place between Dean and Bobby, and not Sam and Bobby. Probably because after John’s death Dean was more in a need for a father figure than Sam.

The most interesting character though is Nick. Another time a family has been destroyed. Another home that no longer feels like a home because the family in it has been ripped apart.

> LUCIFER: _After all, how could God stand idly by while that man broke into your home and butchered your family in their beds?  
> _

Nick is a broken man, his life a tragedy. He lost both his wife and his child (and his wife is yet another woman in white). This is the very reason Lucifer chooses him as a vessel. Because he knows Nick would help him in his crusade against God, Micheal and heaven, after learning there are beings powerfull enough they could have prevented what happened to him and his family, and yet they did nothing.

**6x01 Exile on Main Street**

Just the opening montage alone gives us all the domestic Dean feels. We see him living a very normal life in the suburbs, living together with his beautiful girlfriend and her son, to whom he acts like a dad, having a normal (blue collar) job, barbeques with the neighbors etc. But what we also see are the flashbacks to his old life, blending in with his new life, and even though Dean gave up hunting, he didn’t stop being a hunter, as the devil’s trap under the rug and the holy water and gun under his bed prove. Andeven though Dean truly belongs in this life, even though he fits in, there is a big hole in the shape of his brother through it all. It is a grief that, even though Lisa is aware of the circumstances of Sam’s death, nobody can fully understand. It is perhaps most similar to that of losing a child. It’s the big sacrifice for the greater good, and the price Dean had to pay for it. And even though I would say Dean does feel at home, the fact remains that going to Lisa in the first place is something he did because he had promised his dying brother to do so. **  
**

One part of the apple pie life in Supernatural is being in a long term romantic relationship. It’s not just about having a home, a stable life, a normal job (as opposed to hunting, which is not only a job but a way of living), but to have a significant other. And here we see Dean as the perfect boyfriend/husband/surrogate father, who doesn’t even so much as react when a waitress in a bar flirts with him. It’s the opposite of Dean being  “ _a walking billboard of gluttony and lust_ ”. And it confirms that the Dean we saw in previous seasons - the Dean who flirts at every chance he gets, who has a long history of one night stands, and who admitted in 5x11 that he never had a relationship that lasted longer than two months - was just a persona he putted on. The real Dean though longs for a committed relationship, and it has only been through the circumstances of the hunter life that he thought he would never have a chance of getting one.

The moment though Dean thinks there might be something unusual, he starts to investigate. Not because he misses his life as a hunter that much (it is his brother that he misses), but because he wants to keep his new family safe. And furthermore because he believes that he can’t really outrun his past. The saddest reason though that Dean still sees himself as a hunter, is that he truly believes he doesn’t deserve this new life.

> DEAN: _I should’ve known. I should’ve known that if I stayed with you that something would come, because something always  does. But I was stupid and reckless and…You can’t outrun your past._
> 
> LISA: _You’re saying goodbye._
> 
> DEAN: _I’m saying I’m sorry… For everything. Everything._
> 
> LISA: _You’re an idiot. I mean, I know it wasn’t greeting-card perfect, but we were in it together._
> 
> DEAN: _I was a wreck half the time._
> 
> LISA: _Yeah, well, the guy that basically just saved the world shows up at your door, you  expect  him to have a couple of issues. And you’re always so amazing with Ben. You know what I wanted, more than anything was a guy that Ben could look up to like a dad. So, you’re saying it’s all bad, Dean? ‘Cause it was the best year of my life.  
>   
> _

Of course everything changes the moment Sam comes back. He has been the reason Dean went to Lisa in the first place, he is the reason he stopped hunting. And Dean’s commitment to his new life is based on the solid belief that his brother was gone for good, and wouldn’t come back (seriously Dean, what show have you been watching?). _  
_

And not only Sam returns, but with him grandfather Samuel, a bunch of Campell hunters and a case. And all of sudden Dean’s new life and his old life are in conflict with each other, and it seems inevitable that he has to make a choice for one or the other. Because that is the lesson that Supernatural teached us since 1x01: you can’t have both lives. You are either in or out of hunting. And while Sam stopped being a hunter completely both times when he was with Jessica and later Amelia, Dean tries for a time to have both (with the difference of course that Lisa was fully aware of Dean’s past). But eventually Dean had to choose as well. And as he was never able to stop being a hunter, and as he trully believes he doesn’t belong into the world of the normal, he naturally returns to the hunting life.

The big twist in Sam’s return of course is that he has been back for year, almost immediately after his death. The choice Dean is forced to make in the first half of season six, is a choice that has been taken away from him for a whole year. As I wrote before Dean’s choice to stay with Lisa wasn’t so much as a choice, as the alternative (the hunting life) had no longer an appeal to him without his brother.

Both Sam and Bobby then argue that their decision not to tell Dean that Sam was alive was for Dean’s good. They decided for Dean that what he truly wanted was this new life with a real home and a family.

> SAM: _You finally had what you wanted, Dean._
> 
> DEAN: _I wanted my brother, alive!_
> 
> SAM: _You wanted a family. You have for a long time, maybe the whole time. I know you. You only gave it up because of the way we lived. But you had something, and you were building  something. Had I shown up, Dean, you would have just run off. I’m sorry. But it felt like after everything, you deserve some regular life.  
> _

The argument of course isn’t wheter Dean prefers this new life over his old life, but that both Sam and Bobby made the choice for him, believing to know better.

> BOBBY: _Because you got out, Dean! You walked away from the life. And I was so  damn grateful, you got no idea._
> 
> DEAN: _Do you have any clue what walking away meant for me?_
> 
> BOBBY: _Yeah – a woman and a kid and not getting your guts ripped out at age 30. That’s  what it meant._
> 
> DEAN: _That woman and that kid – I went to them because you asked me to._
> 
> BOBBY: _Good._
> 
> DEAN: _Good for who? I showed up on their doorstep half out of my head with grief. God knows why they even let me in. I drank too much. I had nightmares. I looked  everywhere.  I collected hundreds of books, trying to find anything to bust you out._
> 
> SAM: _You promised you’d leave it alone._
> 
> DEAN: _Of  course I didn’t leave it alone!  Sue me! A damn year? You couldn’t put me out of my misery?_
> 
> BOBBY: _Look, I  get it wasn’t easy. But that’s life! And it’s as close to happiness as I’ve ever seen a hunter get. It ain’t like I wanted to lie to you, son. But you were out, Dean.  
> _

In contrast to Dean’s apple pie life we get Samuel and the other Campell hunters. All through the episode they treat Dean like an outsider, after he spent a year living a normal life. When they return to Lisa’s place, they make fun of him and the life he had build with his new family. It is very similar to the Dean we saw in season one, who openly dismissed everything normal, as opposite to Sam, who had longed for this life. This time of course it is Sam who is a full time hunter (which of course is caused mostly by his missing soul, though we don’t know this yet). 

The most interesting among this new characters of course is Samuel. Samuel, who even though he is actually blood, never becomes part of of Dean’s family (as far as I recall Dean never calls him grandfather, as opposed to Bobby who he of course has called a father - and speaking of names and titles, Dean calls Lisa’s house his home and Gwen calls Lisa Dean’s wife).

Samuel then tells Dean that he does remind him of his daughter, Mary, who wanted out of the life as well. Of course Dean was more or less forced out of the hunting life, whereas it was Sam who deliberately left the hunting life behind (twice). And as we know now Mary didn’t stopped being a hunter in her new domestic life the way Dean never stopped either. 

It is Samuel then who tells Dean to return to the hunting life - after all it is in his blood. They way he tells it is that hunting is Dean’s destiny (quite similar to the way Zachariah said it in 4x17), and well you can’t outrun your destiny, right? Enter Dean Winchester, the poster boy for free will & choice. 

This episode of course again has the theme of what I would call “suburbian horror”. This time Sid (Dean’s neighbor and friend) and his wife get killed in their home. The parallel here is clear: they are no longer random victims, but stand in for Lisa and Dean.

Dean’s Djinn poison nightmare then puts him in the same position as John (before he became a hunter and lived a normal life): he sees his wife (Lisa) burning on the ceiling and his son (Ben) drinking demon blood.

The episode then ends with Dean making a choice. But instead of chosing option A (the apple pie life) or option B (the hunting life) he chooses option C (living both lives). This might mark the first time Dean doesn’t choose his brother, but instead chooses the happiness and family he has found apart from his brother (even though he still doesn’t think he deserves his new life, but rather thinks he needs to protect Lisa and Ben). Even though this choice has been taken away from him for a long time, Dean makes a decision neither Sam or Bobby thought was possible. Instead of returning to the hunting life the moment Sam returns, he makes a choice based on the new responsibilities he has for his new family. Dean subverts then the lesson 1x01 tried to teach us: you can live both lives (even though it sadly doesn’t last).

**7x01 Meet the New Boss**

After all of the domestic feels 6x01 has been given us, we hardly get to see something in 7x01. If we concentrate very hard we can see Dean fixing the Impala (their home), while listening to the news and what Godstiel is doing in his free time. Cas of course by then has becoming a family member, but one that to Dean by now is a lost cause.

Season seven of course is the season of loss: Sam and Dean lose their remaining family members (Cas, Bobby) and both of their homes (the Impala and Bobby’s house). But 7x01 feels more like a continuation of 6x22 as that we get to see much of the season’s themes here. 

**8x01 We Need to Talk About Kevin**

Or: Sam & the apple pie life, part II. Though we don’t get to see much of his actual life with Amelia yet, we do learn that Sam left behind the hunting life completely. This of course will be the main source of conflict between the brothers for the rest of the season. Because whereas Sam wished for Dean to leave him dead and find a new normal life at the end of 5x22, Dean feels betrayed after Sam did exactly this after the events of 7x23. Whereas Sam wanted his brother to find something new, Dean feels abandoned and replaced by a woman. 

(On a side note, they first meet in Rufus’s cabin, the place that was closest to a home to them after Bobby’s house burned down.)

> SAM: _Look, I did what we promised we’d do. I moved on. I lived my life._
> 
> DEAN: _Yeah, no, I’m getting that._                                                               
> 
> SAM: _Look, it wasn’t like I was… just oblivious. I mean, I read the paper every day. I saw the weird stories…the kind of stuff we used to chase._
> 
> DEAN: _And you said what? "Not my problem”?_
> 
> SAM: _Yes. And you know what? The world went on._
> 
> DEAN: _People died, Sam._
> 
> SAM: _People will always die, Dean. Or maybe another hunter took care of it. I don’t know, but the point is, for the first time, I realized that it wasn’t only up to me to stop it._
> 
> DEAN: _Hmm. So what was it, hmm? What could possibly make you stop just like that? A girl? Was there a girl?_
> 
> SAM: _The girl had nothing to do with it._
> 
> DEAN: _There was a girl._

The year they spent apart is represented for Sam through Amelia (the apple pie life) and for Dean through Benny (purgatory) and on a wider scale through Cas. Both eventually leave those last reminders of their time apart behind (in the same episode (8x10), with only Cas remaining), returning to their brotherhood of solitude and co-depency, and the lesson that they can’t have relationships outside their little family (at least not while the other brother is around). This of course isn’t news - Jess died the same episode Dean returned and Lisa later admitted she knew things were over the moment Sam returned (6x06). 

The biggest parallel for Sam in this episode is Kevin. A young man who wants to life a normal life (and had already outplanned his life), until he became a part of the world of the supernatural and had to leave his old life behind. He turned to Sam for help, not knowing Sam had left his old life behind (and that’s another aspect of the hunting life: the responsibilities that come with it and the very reason so few hunters ever stop hunting). 

He briefly returns to one of the old reminders of his old life, his highschool girlfriend Channing, even though he doesn’t interact with her, probably to protect her. Of course in a sadistic twist of irony Channing is killed by the end of the episode by Crowley. Throughout the season Kevin turns to the only other person left from his old life, his mother, who Crowley later kills as well or rather makes Kevin believe so. Kevin therefore loses everything he hold dear in his old life, and learns a brutal lesson of the hunting life: you can’t have attachments. 

Another part of the episode is the reveal of the demon tablets and the prospects of closing the gates of hell (who Sam and Dean opened in the first place, just saying). This marks a major game changer. Even though there would be plenty of monsters left, the world as a whole would become a safer place. And it’s the reason why Dean decides for Kevin that he has to be part of this mission, taking away his choice. 

> DEAN: _And now he’s in it… whether he likes it or not._
> 
> SAM: _So…free will, that’s only for you?_
> 
> DEAN: _I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Sam, we have an opportunity to wipe the slate clean. We take Kevin to the tablet, he tells us the spell, we send every demon back to hell – forever. Every single bastard that destroyed our lives, killed our mother, killed Jess. And you’re not sure?_

The irony of course is that it is Dean of all people who wants to take away this choice from Kevin. But it seems that if he had learned one thing in his life, it is that you never really get out, once the supernatural becomes part of your life.

> DEAN: _All right, listen to me. I’m sorry about your girlfriend, okay? I am. But the sooner you get this, the better. You’re in it now, whether you like it or not. That means you do what you got to do. I’m hitting the head._

Both Sam and Kevin struggle with the hunting life, both feel as though they have no choice in the matter. Dean on the other side, marked by his experiences in purgatory, has long given up his dream of a normal life. 

**9x01 I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here**

In 9x01 we have parallel to the Winchester’s story, the story of the angels losing their home, and with that a new meaning of home. 

The angels were forced out of their home by the one angel (Metatron) they once had force to leave his home as well (Metatron would call it ironic justice). 

We learn that for the angels their home, heaven, means a place of safety, of belonging, but also of order. 

> HAEL: _But Heaven – there was order. There was purpose._

In contrast to that leaving said home (even if it wasn’t on free terms) could mean freedom and making your own choices. 

> CASTIEL : _There’s opportunity for you, the others who have fallen, to do finally do what you would like to do – not just what you’ve been told._

This reading is very different from what the word “home” represented so far on the show. It is perhaps most similiar to a young adult moving out of his family home to a place of their own, an opportunity full of freedom and making your own choices, but also leaving behind the safety and comfort of your old home. 

The reason of course we never had this reading before, is that both Sam and Dean never had a real home to leave in the first place. They never had this feeling of safety and belonging, but instead were forced to make their own choices and to act like an adult at a very young age (Dean perhaps more than Sam). 

This particular arc of course also starts Castiel’s long quest of finding out who he is (angel or man), who his family is (the angels or the Winchesters) and where his home is (heaven or eath/the bunker). 

On the Winchesters side of the story we see Sam visiting two of his homes while beeing in a coma. First the Impala, and then a cabin, that though it isn’t named like this, I think stands for Rufus’s cabin. What we not see is the bunker, which perhaps already tells us Sam doesn’t see the bunker as his home (yet), which will be later discussed in 9x04. Furthermore we see two of Sam’s closest family members (his surrogate father and his brother) represent the sides of him that want to live and that want to die. 

Metaphorically we could also argue that Sam’s body function as his home (at least the home of his soul), and that Dean by allowing an angel to use it as his vessel invades said home. 

And at last, upon learning that Cas is human, Dean sends him to the bunker, showing us that unlike Sam he sees the bunker as their home (and Cas as his family). Tragically though as long as Cas is human he remains homeless (9x03, 9x06) and even now in season 12 still wonders whether he truly belongs in the bunker/to the Winchesters. 

**10x01 Black**

Home is here perhaps pictured the most by the one that is missing from home: Dean. We see both Cas and Sam mourning his loss, and discussing whether or not Dean is still Dean. Because they both know that the Dean they know wouldn’t have left his home and his family behind. What is interesting though is that they both do it at seperate places; Sam in the bunker, Cas at a motel. Of course we know that Cas left because his condition got worse and he didn’t wanted Sam to let know. But we could also argue that the bunker without Dean is no longer a home to Cas. 

Meanwhile Dean is celebrating the summer of love with Crowley. He is back to his “no strings attached”-persona from earlier seasons, drinking, gambling and having one night stands. And yet with Anne-Marie he chooses a woman who looks very similar to his mother, and even though he tells her not to get too attached later offers her to run away with her. Even though his longing for a home and a family and (romantic) love seems to be stripped away from Dean, we get this little glimpses that something from the old Dean, the real Dean, is still there. 

In 10x01 the angel-home-arc also continues (and with that Cas’s identity arc). After the angels can return to their home, Hannah informs Castiel about rogue angels, who don’t want to return, and asks for his help in convincing them otherwise. Once again leaving home, and living on earth, is associated with freedom and choice. 

> HANNAH: _You are an angel, once and forever._
> 
> DANIEL: _Dropped unwillingly…Unknowingly…Into a strange land, a land that, as it turns out, celebrates the free, the individual. For the first time in thousands of years, I have choices. And with each choice… I begin to discover who I really am._

Perhaps Cas was the wrong angel to convince Daniel and Adina to return home, because he like no other knows what it means to leave his home behind (both on free terms and because he was forced to), and the freedom it can bring with it. But those… are human things. 

And because we have to mention him, there is also Cole, who leaves his home and family behind, to go on a revenge mission. 

**11x01 Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire**

Once again we see the suburbian horror, and homes that get destroyed. Jenna’s hometown is destroyed (and people she kew for her whole life killed), just as Crowley destroys the home of his new vessel, Marnie, and kills her husband and friends. 

Jenna in the end returns to another place she used to call home, her grandmother’s house, where she feels she and baby Amara are the safest. 

Speaking of the Amara, metaphorically speaking, with the body as a home, we could argue that Dean has been Amara’s home for some time, and that because of that she feels such a close connection to him. 

And of course again we continue Castiel’s identity arc. Cursed with Rowena’s attack dog spell, Cas leaves his new home/new family, the Winchesters, behind, in order to protect them and turns for help to his old home/family (heaven and the angels). Unfortunately they no longer see him as one of their own/part of their family/part of their home. 

**12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On**

And the last one (if anyone is still reading this, here have a cookie). With Mary’s return of course we come full circle to the pilot. And just as her sons Mary has eventually to make a choice, if she wants to live her life as a hunter or drop out again to live a normal life. 

But before we get there Dean returns her to his home, the bunker, just to see that this place has been invaded as well. His brother is missing, and there is blood on the floor, so we have another example of a home destroyed. 

Next to Mary we have another mother in the episode, Lady Toni, who reveals her soft side when she calls her son and tells him she will be home soon. 

At the end of the episode we get another reminder that Mary dropped out of the hunting life, and that she never wanted her sons to grew up the way she did. Dean though tells her that even though he understands her choice back then, he made his peace with the life he and Sam had, and that the greater goal justifies to give up their own hopes and wishes for a normal life. 

> MARY: _No. I’m sorry. I just… I spent my life running from this, from hunting. And I got out. I never wanted this for you and Sam._
> 
> DEAN: _Mom, I-I get it. I do. If I had kids, I wouldn’t want them in this. But Sam and me… saving people and hunting things, this is our life. I think we make the world a better place. I know that we do._

**Tl, dr** (and who could blame you):Supernatural very often subverts the image of the apple pie life (a real home, a family, long term relationships, a stable job). If you live such a picture perfect life chances are you won’t survive long enough to enjoy it. Family homes become the places of horror and despair, and every family got a dark secret that wants to be revealved. And yet, in contrast to that, we see both brothers again and again longing for such a normal life, for the safety it brings. And even though the show tells us again and again that you can’t have both, and that especially as a hunter it is near impossible to ever fully leave the hunting life behind, I think the show might one day end on a more positive note, showing us that just because you are the one thing (a hunter) you don’t need to give up on the other things (a home, a family, romantic love). 

And finally, my ranking: 

**1.** 1x01 & 6x01

 **2.** 8x01

 **3.** 12x01 & 10x01

 **4.** 9x01

 **5.** 3x01 & 5x01

 **6.** 2x01, 4x01, 7x01, 11x01


	3. It’s your grief counselors – we’ve come to hug.

**It’s your grief counselors – we’ve come to hug.**

**Or The Great Meta Scavenger Hunt - Round 3**

(Title stolen from 2x04, which has no relation to this post, but is kinda fitting)

So, for round 3 Lizzy came up with the most evil plan possible: two random pages from the SuperWiki and their connection. 

Here are my first two links: ( ~~They’re not. I cheated. Sue me~~ )

\- [Kim Schortz](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DKim_Schortz&t=ZGQ5ZGE5ZjRlMDdlYTAyYzQ5YmEwMWQ3N2NmNmRmZjVjYjI2Mjg0YixMQlRZRXJGNw%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F155735640052%2Fits-your-grief-counselors-weve-come-to-hug&m=1)

\- [Molly McNamara](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DMolly_McNamara&t=ZGY3NzMxOTMxZTc2NWYwNjRjNGE3MTYyMzRjZjlmNDhiMmI2ZGFlMCxMQlRZRXJGNw%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F155735640052%2Fits-your-grief-counselors-weve-come-to-hug&m=1)

Kim Schortz is the grief counselor from 9x01 that Dean encounters in the hospital he brought Sam in. She tries to talk with him about the inevitable - Sam’s death - but of course Dean won’t have it. Because their conversation is really short, here is the full version:

> DEAN: _Hi. I’m just gonna break the ice. Are you an angel?_
> 
> WOMAN: _Sometimes I wish I were. My name is Kim Schortz, and I’m a grief counselor here at the hospital._
> 
> DEAN: _Right. Yeah. Uh… Sorry. I’m just tired. Well, all due respect, but, uh, I’m not grieving – not yet at least, so –_
> 
> KIM: _I’m afraid, as hard as this may be, this might be a good time to talk… about the inevitable._
> 
> DEAN: _Look, I’m sure you’re a nice person and that you mean well, but “inevitable” – that’s a fightin’ word where I come from. There’s always a way._
> 
> KIM: _And I am a prayerful woman who believes in miracles as much as the next, but I also know how to read an EEG. And unless you’re telling me you have a direct line to those angels that you were looking for –_
> 
> DEAN: _Yeah, no, I, uh… Guess I don’t. But I might have something better.  I got the King of Hell in my trunk._
> 
> DEAN leaves the room.
> 
> KIM: _Uh, is – is that… I’m sorry. Is that a metaphor?_

**This scene is right after Dean prayed to every angel willing to listen, asking for help in order to save Sam. This explains why his first question is if Kim is an angel - the irony of course is that while she is not an angel she will be the vessel of one later. Another hint in this direction is the fact that she calls herself a prayerful woman.**  
  
What is more important though is Dean’s inability to talk about Sam’s death, or to even imagine this event to happen. He says so himself - for him “inevitable” is a fighting word. This shouldn’t come as a surprise by season 9 anymore. At this point of the story we have seen both Sam and Dean dead and coming back, and the other brother willing to do everything to get their family back.   
  
Dean and the grief counselor couldn’t be any different. Because for all the deaths Dean had to witness in his life he never learned how to grieve. He never learnt to let go. And in a show full of tragedy this might the greatest of them all.   
  
But before we go deeper into that, let’s have a look at our second lady - Molly MacNamara. In 2x16 Sam and Dean encounter the ghost of young woman - Molly - who died 15 years ago and every year at her death’s anniversary she relives through the tragic events of her death. The twist in the story is that she isn’t aware yet that she is dead/a ghost. Furthermore the episode is told from Molly’s POV, so the audience as well is unaware of her condition, until Sam and Dean tell her the truth. Molly is the perfect example of an unreliable narrator, and the episode is worth a rewatch, as our perspective of her character and the events of the episode completely change once we know the truth. (It’s an episode that doesn’t get as much meta attention as it should, but I discovered it has a small fanbase on tumblr. Though at least half of my love for this episode is based on my giant girl crush on Tricia Helfer <3)  
  
What is interesting is the season this episode is set in. Season two starts with one deal (John’s life in exchange for Dean’s) and ends with another deal (Dean’s life in exchange for Sam’s). The whole season Dean struggles with his father’s decision. He struggles with the knowledge that he should have died - if we take the events of 1x12 into account twice already. He feels like he no longer belongs in the world of the living and that he isn’t worthy enough the big sacrifice his father made for him. It is why it is so esy for him to make the deal at the end of the season - after all he should be dead anyway and this way his life has some worth after all (saving Sam). In a way we could argue that Dean just like Molly has became a ghost. Unlike Molly though he is aware of his condition and the pain it brings. It is therefore no surprise it is Sam instead who connects more with Molly and tries to make her slowly see what happened to her.   
  
Unlike other ghosts Molly’s unfinished business is not revenge, but love. It is the love for her husband that keeps her from moving on. She repeatly asks about his whereabouts, and tells the brothers she won’t leave without him. Similar the deals the Winhesters make - based on their inability to let go - are born out of love as well.   
  
Sam tells Molly that some spirits only see what they want to see, and later that she couldn’t see the truth. Again, she is an unreliable narrator. But on a even more meta level this of course applies to the Winchesters as well. They too tell their story in a way that is most fitting to them - they make themselves the heroes of their own stories and by that justify their actions. “ _I did what I had to do_ ” is going to become Dean’s excuse after Sam found out he let an angel use him as a vessel. But only one episode later he tells Sam that he is “poison”. The truth of course is that Dean is neither the hero or the villian - he just is.   
  
 The perhaps most interesting part of 2x16 though is this conversation:   


> SAM: _Um … Spirits like Greeley are, uh … like wounded animals. Lost. In so much pain that … they lash out._
> 
> MOLLY: _Why? Why are they here?_
> 
> SAM: _Well, there’s some part of them that… that’s keeping them here. Like their remains or, um… unfinished business._
> 
> MOLLY: _Unfinished business?_
> 
> SAM: _Yeah. Uh, it could be revenge. Could be love. Or hate. Whatever it is, they just hold on too tight. Can’t let go. So they’re trapped. Caught in the same loops. Replaying the same tragedies over and over._
> 
> MOLLY: _You sound almost sorry for them._
> 
> SAM: _Well, they weren’t evil people, you know? A lot of them were good. Just… Something happened to them. Something they couldn’t control._

 [@rosie-berber](https://tmblr.co/mib0uqGvIHzwCZmbsNTYKbA) already wrote an exellent meta for round two of the Meta Scavenger Hunt about Supernatural’s repetitive nature - that the real trauma is that the Winchesters have to live through their first trauma (losing their mom and the inability to save her) over and over again ([read it here](http://rosie-berber.tumblr.com/post/155347577968/we-can-end-this-here-and-now-but-were)). Just like Molly the Winchesters are trapped in a giant loop. Something happened to them as well - something they couldn’t control. This of course is their mother’s death. But is not only that they are forced to relive the trauma of losing her, it is the aftermath of her death that affects them as well. Or rather the lack of it. Because as I argued before Dean (and to some extent Sam) never learned to grieve and/or to let go. Instead of coping with Mary’s death in a healthy way Dean had to witness his father becoming obsessed with the very thing that killed her. It is also implied that Mary wasn’t a topic in the Winchester household. Every time Sam mentions her Dean gets angry and refuses to talk about her, which leads to Sam knowing almost nothing about his own mother. From 12x01 we know that Dean though knows many details about her life - enough to convince her that he is indeed her son. We can only assume where Dean got this information from - most likely from his father, most likely when he was drunk. This inability to talk about her also resulted in a wrong picture Dean created over the years about his mother - he became an unreliable narrator of her story. 

The inability to let go and accept death is almost a Winchester trademark - Mary makes a deal to save John, John makes a deal to save Dean, Dean makes a deal to save Sam. Sam tried to make a deal after the events of season 3, but no demon longer agrees to help him out. We know that Dean as well tried to bring Sam back after season 5. Dean, as already mentioned, made a deal with an angel in order to save Sam at the beginning of season 9. The season ends with Sam summoning Crowley in order to bring his brother back from the dead. Seson 10 shows us a desperate Sam willing to do everything to release his brother from the MoC, ultimately resulting in the release of the Darkness. Speak of a pattern.

This pattern is only broken a couple times. In 5x22 Dean accepts Sam’s sacrifice, knowing it is the only way to stop the apocalypse. And though he tried to bring him back he found some sort of peace with Lisa and Ben. At the beginning of season 8 we learn that Sam didn’t try to bring Dean back. It is in my opinion the only time we see one of the brothers dealing with death in healthy way. For the first time we see Sam not on a revenge mission, but instead he is actually grieving and trying to accept Dean’s death and finding a way to live on without him. Unfortunately it results in the season’s conflict of Dean feeling like Sam abadoned him, causing Sam enough guilt to admit in 8x23 that his greatest sin were all the times he failed his brother. In 11x23 though we again see Sam willing to accept his brother’s sacrifice. 

Of course Supernatural is a tv show that lives by the simple rule to not let your main character die - and because it is genre tv we can bend the rules a little bit and let them die, but ultimately they keep coming back. As an audience it is something we no longer question, and it takes away the suspense every time a Winchester dies again. But what Supernatural hardly shows is the tragic reality of it. Because how could you ever go on, how could you ever let go, if a part of you knows that there are ways to bring someone back from the dead. Maybe it takes some months, maybe even a year, but they always come back. And what might sound great is in reality a deeply traumatic experience - for both,the one coming back, and the one waiting for you. It is why we never see the Winchesters grieve - the only times perhaps when Cas died in season 7 (and up to some points the writers thought his death was permanent) and again Sam in season 8, who trully believed his brother wouldn’t return this time. It makes the Winchesters prisoners, trapped forever in a giant loop. And just like souls who can’t move on, who have unfinshed business, they become ghosts as well over time - lashing out, becoming violent. And it makes me wonder and hope that some day the Winchesters might listen to their own advice - the one they gave Molly in 2x16 and that Kim tried to give Dean in 9x01 - that sometimes in order to move forwards you have to let go. But if anything the events of 11x23 make me hopefull.


	4. The Sinner, the Saint & the Fangirl

**The Sinner, the Saint & the Fangirl**

**Female archetypes in 3x12 & 5x01 aka The Great Meta Scavenger Hunt Round 4**

In this weeks challenge our task was to take a closer look on both 3x12 and 5x01, with bonus points if our focus is on the female characters of the episodes. And obviously this meta challenge is not a comnpetion and the real prize is the friends we made along the way or so I have been told, but I also really wanna win this thing (whatever this thing is), so bonus points here we come. Instead of comparing the two episodes and/or their female characters though, I decided to place each of them in a certain category. Namely is that woman a sinner or a saint? (Or because this Supernatural, a fangirl.)

The sinner/saint dynamic is something that exists as long as movies exist, and of course it is the kind of stereotype reserved exclusively for women. It is very prominent in old western, but not limited to it. The names are already self-explanatory; the saint is a woman of virtue, symbolizing innocence and purity. They often end up being either a victim or at least the damsel in distress, and if they survive they are the reward for our hero. Opposed to that is the sinner, women who have a low social stand for whatever reason and are often portrayed promiscuous. They usually don’t survive the movie. And at least if you watch an old western chances are big our saint is portrayed by a white woman with light hair, whereas the sinner is almost always portrayed by a woman of colour (because next to misogynist those movies were also racist). 

( ~~As you can see during my time at university I also had a beginner’s course of film study~~ )

Of course this kind of archetypes evolved over time and today female characters get to be more complex. That doesn’t mean they aren’t used anymore, or at least their basics. Because it’s something most viewers are familiar with, and whenever these archetypes appear the audience doesn’t need much time to decide how to view this character (basically: good guy or bad guy?). But it is also used to subvert our expectitations towards certain characters. 

Some time ago I wrote a meta about Supernatural from a feminist point of view, with a special look at the Carver era (which you can read [here](http://nerdylittleshit.tumblr.com/post/150606438067/thats-my-girl-a-closer-look-at-season-10)). In it I also noted that during the first years (the Kripke era) almost all female characters end up in one of three categories: antagonist (sinner), love interest or mom/sister characters (saints). Especially during the Carver era female characters have become more complex, but even today it seems like Donna might be the only current female character who doesn’t fit in either character, but is instead one of the few female friends the Winchesters have (Jody is also a mom character, whereas Charlie was portrayed as a little sister). And looking back it made us realize that even in Supernatural early years there was a group that didn’t fit in either to one of the three groups: female law enforcers (which Donna is of course as well). (More on this [here](http://nerdylittleshit.tumblr.com/post/155692701462/why-doesnt-dean-go-for-lady-cops) and [here](http://nerdylittleshit.tumblr.com/post/155691372307/lunellumcas-do-you-ever-think-about-how-donna-is)). But I digress. Going back to 3x12 and 5x01 we can place almost all characters in the sinner or saint category, with the exception of Becky, who gets her own category. 

So let’s have a look.

**3x12 Jus in Belo**

**Bela:  
**

The episode starts with a reminder that Bela stole the Colt from the Winchesters. Dean assumes she just wants to sell it to the highest bidder, when in reality Bela tries to exchange the Colt for her soul. 

Of course we as an audience don’t know this yet, and neither does Dean, so we just assume she is a horrible person, who is okay with hundreds of people getting possesed and causing mayhem, only to get some extra cash. 

Of course one could argue that her goal only to save her own soul when the Colt could save so much more people isn’t any better. It is still a very selfish reason for her to steal the Colt. And it places her opposite to Nancy, who considers sacrificing her own life in order to save many more people. 

If anything Bela is a great example of how our expectations get subverted. Until 3x15 we only think of her in terms of a sinner. None of her actions are selfless or in any way heroic. The way we view her character is only changed once we learn the reason she made a deal in the first place: to escape her abusive parents. It doesn’t make her a saint, but it removes her from being a sinner as well. If anything it places her near characters like Bobby or Dean who both suffered from abusive parents as well, but eventually made different choices (and is also a comment how different male and female characters with the same backstory are treated at Supernatural, just saying). 

**Nancy:**

Nancy is probably the character who fulfills any stereotypes the most, mostly because she only appears in one episode and it is usually the recurring characters who are allowed to get more complex.

Nancy is a classic saint, no doubt. She is introduced wearing a cross and a rosary, telling us at first glance that she is very religious. The very first thing she hears about the Winchesters? That they are “ Satan-worshipping, nutbag killers”. Her fear of them is not just based on the fact they are criminals (she works at a police station, she is used to them), but that they are satanists. And yet it appears she believes in the good of the people after all, or otherwise Sam’s trick to get her close enough to their cell in order to steal her rosary wouldn’t have worked. 

After Victor Henriksen and the others learn the truth - demons are actually a thing - we get this little exchange.

> Dean: _How you holdin’ up, Nancy?_
> 
> Nancy: _Okay. When I was little, I would come home from the church and start to talk about the devil. My parents would tell me to stop being so literal. I guess I showed them, huh? That should hold._

It further confirms Nancy’s religious nature, as well as showing us that Nancy at least as a child divided the world into black and white, evil and good. We can only assume her morality got more complex over the years, as she wasn’t completely hostile towards Sam and Dean even when she still believed them to be the bad guys.

As the plot thickens Ruby appears and offers a spell to get rid of all demons, though it includes killing a virgin. Which is how we learn that Nancy is still a virgin. Interesting enough Ruby speaks first of a person of virtue, before she specifies her request that she needs a virgin. We can argue therefore that in Supernatural a virgin automatically translate as a person of virtue. Furthermore virgins seem to symbolize purity and innocence. The only other time virgins were brought up again was in 6x12, where again their virginity was tied to the mythology of the show, in that case dragons who were after virgins. (And then of course Eve, who chose the body of a virgin as her vessel, subverting the image of the pure and innocent. But furthermore also a body nobody had used before (so to speak) and the irony of course of a virgin mother.)

Of course this is also bullshit. Your decision wheter to have sex or not (and with whom and how often) doesn’t say anything about your virtue. Deciding to stay a virgin doesn’t make you a good person, the same way that having sex doesn’t make you a bad person (especially not as a woman, no matter what people say). But its an image so old - virginity = purity - that we buy it without a second thought. That is the way arechetypes work after all, because they are familiar.

It is also the reason why Nancy never becomes a love interest. Apart from the fact that she appears to be rather young, the fact that she is a virgin immdiately not only places her in the category of a saint but also regarding the Winchesters in that of a little sister. 

The reason though Nancy is a person of virtue/a saint is not her virginity but her willingness to sacrifice herself in order to save all the people the demons have possesed. She is also doing this while everyone around her (Sam, Dean, Ruby, Victor) still argue whether it is the morally right thing to do, reminding them it is her choice.

As I said before Nancy functions here opposed to Bela. Whereas Bela’s actions are based on selfish motives, Nancy is willing to do the ultimate sacrifice, a completely selfless act. We could further argue her decision is based on her faith as well, as Christianty is about altruism.

The episode ends however with all of our sinners surviving (Bela, Ruby, Lilith) whereas our only saint dies, despite the fact Sam and Dean tried everything to save her. Portraying her as the genuine good person she is, her loss perhaps hurts the most.

**Ruby:**

Enter Ruby. The great thing about her character is that during the whole of season 3 and 4 she is written ambiguous enough that we are never quite sure in which category she belongs, until her final reveal in 4x22. She is without a doubt no saint, but the show up until the end of her story makes us wonder if she a sinner either. And we are reminded of this here, because the very first thing Sam says about her, is that she is here to help them, marking her her as an ally.

Ruby, or more specific her spell, represents the moral dilemma of the episode. Is it okay to kill one person in order to save many others? Especially if said person is willing to sacrifice herself? 

It leads to a great display of the different kind of moralities Sam and Dean have ( [@postmodernmulticoloredcloak](https://tmblr.co/mf4M6zzYHBBds6ET4AADySQ) wrote a great piece about it [here](http://nerdylittleshit.tumblr.com/post/155874295767/sam-and-deans-ethical-codes)). Sam is willing to think about it, whereas Dean pretty much says that Ruby’s choice is no choice at all. 

> Henriksen: _We do not sacrifice people. We do that, we’re no better than them._
> 
> Ruby: _We don’t have a choice._
> 
> Dean: _Yeah, well, your choice is not a choice._

Dean’s position here equals Victor’s. You can’t fight monsters if in order to do so you become a monster yourself. 

> Dean: _It doesn’t mean that we throw away the rule book and stop acting like humans. I’m not gonna let that demon kill some nice, sweet, innocent girl, who hasn’t even been laid. I mean, look, if that’s how you win wars, then I don’t want to win._

Ruby on the other hand thinks certain sacrifices are neccessary in order to win a war. She even points out that doing the spell would kill herself as well, a sacrifice she is willing to do if it helps the Winchesters. This particular part made me wonder if Ruby didn’t secretly count that Sam and Dean wouldn’t go through with her plan. Because what would have been her gain if she died? Her offering along makes us wonder about her true nature. If Nancy’s virtue is displayed by her willingness to sacrfice herself, can’t we say the same about Ruby? 

This explanation makes a lot of sense. Ruby offers to sacrifice herself, therefore she places herself in the category of “good”. But it would also include the sacrifice of someone else, testing if Sam would be willing to consider it (he is, and we see the exact same dilemma in 4x22, where Sam kills a nurse because he believes it is the only way to defeat Lilith). She knows the Winchesters won’t go through with it, with Dean basically preventing it (because Sam only gives in to Ruby fully once Dean is gone). She still survives, leaving the police station once the Winchesters don’t agree with her plan and probably told Lilith where they are, to finish the episode with a great “I told you so”, showing them that her way would have been the right way all along. 

> Ruby: _Don’t thank me. Lilith killed everyone. She slaughtered your precious little virgin, plus a half a dozen other people. So after your big speech about humanity and war, turns out your plan was the one with the body count. Do you know how to run a battle? You strike fast and you don’t leave any survivors. So no one can go running to tell the boss. So next time… we go with my plan._

In hindsight Ruby is a classic example of a sinner, including her seducing Sam. But up until the big reveal in 4x22 the show plays with our instinct reaction to her (she is a demon, she must be bad), making us constantly wondering in which category she fits (just as Bela’s story only gets complete with her last episode). 

**Lilith:**

Aka the big bad of the season. I love how Dean after Ruby tells him there is a new big bad out there instantly assumes it is a he, until she correts him. You know, men don’t have the monopoly on murder. 

This marks also the first episode we actually see Lilith, and it is interesting what kind of vessel she chooses: that of a young girl. Just as with Nancy we instantly assume the little girl to be innocent, only to get that expectation subverted as well. It is not the only time she appears as a little girl - she does the same thing in 3x16 (in a really creepy way I might add, causing the moral dilemma if it is okay to kill a child if said child is possesed by a demon). 

We only see her in an adult vesel in season 4, still wearing white and having long blonde hair, both visual signs of purity, while also presenting her in suggestively way. Furthermore I might add Chuck’s vision in 4x18 of Sam and Lilith having sex, which by then has become a little theme, after sleeping with Ruby and presenting Meg initially as a love interest. 

Lilith of course is a classic sinner. From a demon’s perspective though she could be seen as a saint as well, sacrificing herself for a greater goal (the rise of Lucifer). 

**5x01 Sympathy for the Devil**

I don’t count Lucifer disguised as Nick’s dead wife here, because I think Lucifer mostly identifies himself as male. 

**Becky:**

And this is where we add a third category, the fangirl. Becky is of course no sinner, but also no saint. For this episode she is merely a plot device. And another example of the shows long list of consent issues, as she seems to have a problem to let go of Sam.

Furthermore Becky is a comment of TPTB of how they view their audience/fandom. And it is not a very pretty picture. 

When she appears again in 5x09 she is yet again just a plot device (getting the Winchesters to the con in the first place, telling them later about Crowley and the Colt). 7x08 is so full of consent issues I’m not even going there. 

It seems like once Becky fulfilled her job (giving the Winchesters information they need) the writers didn’t really know what to do with her, and transformed her into a big joke about fans and their delusional way to see the world. Not really funny. 

It took one Robbie Thompson to give us Charlie Bradbury instead, and later 10x05, to show us that fandom and fans can be portrayed in a much mure postive way. 

  
**Meg:**

And the last one on the list. Meg’s journey starts as someone who looks like an ally/love interest back in 1x11, only to be revealved to be a sinner all along. She pretty much stays this way in the first five seasons, but eventually works together with the Winchesters in season 6, 7 and 8, as they have a common enemy in Crowley, leading to her sacrficice in 8x17. It doesn’t make her a saint of course, but again we can’t put her into the category of sinner either. What is interesting here is that she stays a sinner all along in the Kripke era and only becomes something more, more complex once Sera Gamble and later Jeremy Carver took over. 

In 5x01 we see her in all her evil glory though. She kisses Dean against his consent (demons and sexual assault is a topic of its own), and arranges it that Bobby gets possesed and almost kills Dean. Like she could have killed Dean a million different ways, but she wanted his surrogate dad to do the job, punishing Bobby along the way. 

**Tl, dr:**

Archetypes, such as the sinner and the saint, are used frequently in Supernatural, especially in the first five seasons. They are used especially if a character only appears one time, because the audience is already familiar with this kind of characters. Recurring female character tend to be more complex, with the show often subverting our expections. Also, sacrificing yourself is kinda a big thing.


	5. Frodo Lives

**Frodo Lives**

**Aka The Great Meta Scavenger Hunt Round 5**

[Originally posted by supernaturalangel1967](https://tmblr.co/ZfpFDj1yvoFdm)

For this weeks challenge Lizzy gave us this:

> _Now no one bends reality like Supernatural, so as a point of professional pride, I think we should re-examine our own canon to find out where and when it is only a dream/extended metaphor/biased narrative told to us in secret first person from a particular character. Did Dean never come back from the season 2 djinn dream? Is Sam still in Mystery Spot? Or Hell? Is everything before 6x20 Cas’s take on events and he literally told us the whole story when he threatened to tell us a story? Find yourself a break from the normal narrative and tell me how an episode/story arc/season/entire chunk of the show was in fact a story within a story or a dream within a dream or an unreliable narrator unreliably narrating_. ([x](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/156216172343/the-great-meta-scavenger-hunt-round-5))

Also known as “[It was all just a dream](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FMain%2FAllJustADream&t=YWU2NDJiZTlkOTQ1MmNhMDUwMmU0ODZjZmFjYmQxNTc5YWI5YmFkNCx2Z1dVS2R4cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156375406892%2Ffrodo-lives&m=1)”, my least favourite trope. Don’t get my wrong - glimpses into alternative realities or dream worlds can be great, hell 2x20 is one of my all time favourite episodes. But they need to work with the premise that the audience knows that what we see is not real. I absolutely hate it though if we get this twist at the end. Even more if the dream itself covered several episodes or worse the whole show. Unreliable narrators can be fun if it is done right, but most of the time this trope feels to me like lazy writing, and adding a twist just for the sake of it. Nevertheless I’m gonna present my own little theory of an unreliable narrator in Supernatural, though I have to admit this theory is probably not fool proved. Either way, here we go.

The title probably already told you what this is about - presenting a theory about Charlie and the potential that she might be still alive after all. I know to most of us she still is - the Supernatural fandom ignores Charlie’s death the same way the Harry Potter fandom ignored the Epilogue at the end of Deathly Hallows. Because that’s the thing about canon - we acknowledge it as long as it is not stupid.

Now Charlie’s death hurt like no other, and there are many reasons for it. She was a fan favourite, a stand in for the audience and postive representation of a fangirl, and the only recurring queer character on the show (or you know the only one out of the closet *cough*). And let’s just say killing a queer character by Nazi-esque character, her dead body left behind in the bathtub ([the fridge probably wasn’t big enough](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FMain%2FStuffedIntoTheFridge&t=OWU3MzVmMjkzODA4MWZlZGQ5MzljZTU2Y2E0NGRmYjBiNmYzYzEzYix2Z1dVS2R4cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156375406892%2Ffrodo-lives&m=1)) is about as sensitive as putting a [collar on a woman of color](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DPortia&t=YzRlNzMzYTQyMjJjZjVlZWM3YTMyODc3NDU2MGVlZGVjMzgxZTM5NSx2Z1dVS2R4cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156375406892%2Ffrodo-lives&m=1). [Just](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DEugenie_Ross-Leming&t=ZGI0NDFhOWU1YWVkODhhMmQzZDAwMGNmNDgyNGE5M2M4NmJmYWVkNSx2Z1dVS2R4cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156375406892%2Ffrodo-lives&m=1) [saying](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DBrad_Buckner&t=ZDhjNDQ2Mzc0YjcwYWMyYjY5YjgxZGNlZjA2ZjYzMzMwOGI4Y2U3ZSx2Z1dVS2R4cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156375406892%2Ffrodo-lives&m=1). 

But we just simply ignore all our bitter feelings for a moment, and instead of the why, we look at the how. Because for whatever stupid reasons TPTB thought it was neccessary to kill Charlie (it wasn’t), the fact remains she died in what could be only described as a giant plot hole. Instead of giving her an heroic hunter death - the way Jo or Bobby or any other hunter on the show had - she died in a way that left many of us with disbelief. 

There where plenty of ways Charlie could have escaped, plenty of ways she could have fight back - after all that girl had survived a war in Oz. And it is her stay in Oz that made many believe she did perhaps fake her own death, and that she gained the knowlege to do so while she was there. And even without magic this is Charlie we are talking about. Charlie, who was so brilliant, not even Dick Roman could make an Leviathan copy of her, as we learned in 7x20.

> DICK ROMAN: _You’re kind of completing me right now, Charlie. You have that spark, that thing that makes humans so special. Not everyone has it, you know. Those people – they can be replaced. But people like you… are impossible to copy._

And in the same episode we also got this:

> CHARLIE: _This ain’t the first time I’ve disappeared. You think my name is really Charlie Bradbury? Please._

This would confirm the theory Charlie faked her own death. But another of my least favourite tropes is when characters do exactly this - faking their own death. Say she did - why would she still be hiding by now? All the Stynes are dead, Dean is free from the Mark of Cain, there is no other threat for her. So we can rule out she did it herself - but it doesn’t mean nobody else did. 

[Originally posted by weeklyspn](https://tmblr.co/ZoAoti2H7GYI_)

Yep, that’s right. Crowley. And I know now you are wondering why he would do it? What is his gain? Well, first of all in the world of Supernatural death often works as a plot device. Sam’s death at the end of season 2 led to Dean making a deal, which resulted in his death, which led to Sam starting to use his psychic powers. Or take Kevin’s death: it was the reason Dean took the Mark of Cain. Charlie’s death then led to Dean fully embracing his dark side and giving in to his desire to kill. It is lazy storywriting at his best, to think the only way to lead a character in a darker direction is through loss. And furthermore it degrades the death itself of the character if it only happens to lead the plot in a certain direction (so, no surprise both Kevin and Charlie were killed by the dreaded duo). 

So could it be Crowley arranged/faked Charlie’s death, knowing what deep impact it would have on Dean, who already struggled with the MoC at this point? Did he hope Dean would come back to him - continuing their summer of love - and eventually become a demon again? Maybe even get the First Blade back? It is a possibility. If anything it would have brought Dean closer to Crowley again, maybe even made him dependent on Crowley. 

And it wouldn’t be the first time Crowley faked the death of a loved one - he made Kevin believe his mother was dead, hoping that her loss would take away his last hope/connection to a normal life and to isolate him more from the Winchesters. To get Kevin at a point he wouldn’t care anymore, and started working for Crowley. 

But in 9x14 we learn that Linda Tran was alive all the time, trapped with others as a human leverage. Previous to that Crowley did try to mess with Kevin - telling him at first his mother was dead, only to tell him later the opposite, that she was still alive and only he knew where she was. In 9x02 he first made Kevin doubt, reminiding him that he never saw a body.

This of course is something we defenitely saw - Charlie’s body, later cremated in a Hunter’s funeral pyre. But could it be it was still a trick after all? Maybe it was enough to simply tell Kevin his mother was dead, but Crowley knew the Winchesters needed a body to be convinced. But then again Crowley’s mother is a witch and we know he has the means to pull of a stunt like this. In 10x14 we saw him using the Rune of Amaranth, an illusion spell. Of course the illusion only holds as long as nobody touches it, and Crowley needed a corporal body to convince the Winchesters. We did saw another form of illusion in 8x21, where demons looked like Sam and Dean, to trick Kevin. So maybe there was a body - it just wasn’t Charlie’s and only a spell made it appear like hers. 

And speaking of witchcraft. It is possible Rowena might have helped Crowley. Maybe she was able to contact Crowley even though she was a prisoner at the time. After all she knew how important Charlie was to Sam and Dean.

> ROWENA: _I read you the minute I saw you. And I’m sure you’re learning that the line between good and evil is quite flexible. But we part company when it comes to blind devotion. Case in point … the Winchesters. You’ve made them the family you don’t have. Foolish._
> 
> CHARLIE: _Sam and Dean are like my brothers. I love them._
> 
> ROWENA: _I know. And that steadfast loyalty will be your undoing, my girl._

She warns Charlie that the Winchesters will be the death of her, the same way Crowley warned Kevin in 8x02.

> CROWLEY: _I know we’re not mates, Kevin, but one word of advice – run. Run far and run fast. ‘Cause the Winchesters – well, they have a habit of using people up and watching them die bloody. Toodles._

Furthermore it might be possible Rowena cast a spell on Charlie as well. Because the reason Charlie left to be on her own, to get to the motel where the Stynes found her, is Rowena.

> CHARLIE: _I am doing my best, but with her criticizing, breathing down my neck, trying to sign me up for team witch … oh, oh, and moaning how the one good year for music was 1723 … I … I am going crazy. I know. No, I mean, she is evil._
> 
> CASTIEL: _She is a wicked witch, so by definition …_
> 
> CHARLIE: _No, no, no, I mean something bad is gonna happen here. Castiel, man, just spring me for two hours, one hour … anyplace quiet. Dean is my buddy, and I cannot screw this up, but … but my mind is … is … it’s a wad of gummy worms. Please._

Especially the last line made me wonder if Charlie is feeling that way because of Rowena. It sounded very unlike Charlie to start a catfight and to leave a safe place when she knew the Stynes were still searching for her. So was Rowena messing with her head? Getting her out so her son could fulfill his evil plan? And could it be Charlie is still alive? That Crowley uses her skills for himself? Or again as a human leverage?

In my personal opinion I don’t believe that’s true. If Crowley kept her he would have used this leverage already against the Winchesters. Furthermore bringing Charlie back now would feel like cheap fanservice and again lazy writing. That doesn’t mean Charlie will never come back -[after all you are never really dead on Supernatural](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DDead...or_are_they%253F&t=ZDU3OGVmYzU0MGYxNTFmYzk5MWY1MTA3ODJjM2Y0MzAwYmY0NDAwZSx2Z1dVS2R4cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156375406892%2Ffrodo-lives&m=1) \- but maybe in a different way. Who knows.


	6. Playing the part: Themes of identity in 2x19 and 11x13

**Playing the part: Themes of identity in 2x19 and 11x13**

**aka The Great Meta Scavenger Challenge Round 6**

Now, this isn’t going to be as long as my other entries, but I wanted to write something, because I have a history of starting something and then never finish it. So here we are again.

In this week’s challenge we were asked to compare 2x19, one of my favourite episodes, and 11x13, which is kinda okay, I guess. Both episodes don’t have much in common at a first glance (damn you, dice!), but if we dig a bit deeper there are some similarities. One theme both episodes have in common is that of identity; both in acting a part and in the role the Winchesters take in in the greater narrative.

So, let’s have a look.

**2x19 Folsom Prison Blues**

> SAM: _Dean, does it … bother you at all, how easily you seem to fit in here?_
> 
> DEAN: _No, not really._

The reason I love this episode is because it gives us such great insight into both Dean’s and Sam’s characters, and the contrast between them. The monster-plot is rather unrelevant, what matters is the setting of the episode: a prison. And the roles Sam and Dean have to play: that of inmates. And just as in the episode previous to this (2x18), where they had to pretend to work on a film set, Dean seems to have no problem at all to fit in, in contrast to Sam. Both times we see Dean being accepted by those around him. And it reveals something rather sad about Dean: that he has no identity of his own. Sure, we can all list things that are typically Dean (and by far more so then we can for Sam), but the show or rather Dean himself questioned if those things are really his in 3x10 or if his identity isn’t something he “borrowed” from his dad. By now of course we have learned that what seemed to be John’s things were in fact Mary’s things (her taste in music, books, food, cars etc). Still, Dean coming to terms with who he really is, who he allows himself to be, is an ongoing theme throughout the whole show. 

But there is something else other than Dean being good at playing a role. It is the fact that he associates himself with the inmates. Other than Sam, who judges them. 

> DEAN:[…] _I mean, come on, man, this place has all the signs of a haunting. Innocent people are dead. Four so far._
> 
> SAM: _Yeah, innocent._
> 
> DEAN: _You from Texas all of a sudden? Just because these people are in jail, doesn’t mean they deserve to die. If we don’t stop this thing, people are going to continue to die. We do this job wherever it takes us._

We never get to know what the other inmates did that they went to prison, so the show leaves it open how “evil” these people really were. But I think Dean is overly aware of all the times they broke the law as well. Sure, to hunt monsters and save the day, but still. He knows how easily you can land in prison even for rather small crimes, because I’m sure other hunters weren’t as lucky as the Winchesters and it happened to them. Dean doesn’t judge, because it is only luck that prevented him so far from going to prison. This, and the class he is coming from (white middleclass) and that his dad was practically an outlaw (but then, all hunters are). Sam of course has the same upbringing, but at least in the early seasons Sam’s time at Stanford was portrayed as an escape of said social class and the hunter life. 

A more direct parallel was Tiny, another inmate, who admitted that his low self esteem was caused by his abusive father (who his brother later killed). I dunno, but to me this always sounded quite familiar to the Winchester’s upbringing, minus the patricide. 

Apart from the how the Winchesters see themselves we have another two characters, who add an outsider persepective. First of all everyone’s favourite FBI agent, Victor Hendriksen. It is very clear how he sees the Winchesters.

> MARA DANIELS:[…] _Henriksen says you’re a monster._

12x09 was another reminder how the Winchesters must look like if you just go through their crmininal records: like complete lunatics.

Opposed to that we have their public defender, Mara Daniels. Instead of doing the bare minimum she investigates a bit further and asks witnesses of the crimes the Winchesters allegedly have commited, learning that some of them claim instead the Winchesters have saved their lifes. She is conflicted what to believe, but ultimately trusts Dean, when he tells her they are not the bad guys, and helps them. 

From a cosmis perspective the Winchesters are still nobodys. Sure, there is something ominous about Sam and his psychic powers. But overall, they remain two hunters, fighting monsters, saving the day. 

**11x13 Love Hurts**

This cosmic perspective of course has dramatically shifted by the events of season 11. Sam and Dean have been revealved to be the true vessels of Lucifer and Michael, Sam almost closed the gates of hell and Dean bore the Mark of Cain, therefore became the vessel for the Darkness aka Amara aka God’s sister, who sees him now as her connection to humanity. That’s a lot. Some might say they shifted from nobodys or at least your average hunter to becoming the center of the universe. Or so I heard. Anyway, their role within the narrative changed. If we ask them who they are, the answer would be: they are the guys who saved the world. Multiple times. Although that might not be the answer they would give us. 

Because it is true that back in 2x19 they were not the bad guys. They were in fact innocent. But they are no longer. They broke the world almost as often they saved it. They did horrible things while trying to do good things. They’ve changed. And ask themselves if they are still the good guys (see 10x23). 

This is why they give up their disguise of being FBI agents rather fast (What kind of FBI agents are you? - The fake kind). They are no longer the heroes. Furthermore, Dean thinks his connection to Amara makes him evil as well. 

> DEAN: _No! She can’t be!_ [his desire]
> 
> SAM: _Why not?_
> 
> DEAN: _Why? Because if she is that means that I’m…_
> 
> SAM: _Means you’re what? Complicit? Weak? Evil?_
> 
> DEAN: _For starters, yeah._

It explains why Dean kissed Melissa to take the curse of her without thinking about it. For him it was the right thing to do, the only thing he knew would save her. It put him again into the role of the hero/the martyr, when he doubted if he could longer fulfill this role. 

His doubts are based on his connection to Amara and the hold she has over him. The monster of the episode, the qareen, is a stand in for Dean. The qareen functions as a slave to the witch and her commands, and has no idendity of its own, but rather disguises itself as the victims deepest darkest desire. Dean becomes a slave to Amara as well, losing his agency/free will whenever he is near her. And just as the qareen he struggles to have/find an identity of his own. The qareen pretends to be someone else, the way Dean does so many times, both professionally (pretending to be FBI etc) and privately when he plays his macho dude bro persona (Dean’s womanizing at the beginning of the episode). 

Furthermore the Winchesters originally think the qareen is a shapeshifter. The shapeshifter of course is a monster that is all about identity and that has been ever since it firsts appearence in 1x06 associated with Dean.


	7. The Great Meta Scavenger Hunt - Round 7: The SECOND Most Important Object In The Universe

**The Great Meta Scavenger Hunt - Round 7: The SECOND Most Important Object In The Universe**

*insertsmarttitlehere*

**The challenge:**

> _Over the years we’ve seen many different items - weapons, jewellery, clothing, photos, whatever brand of hair product Dean uses - which have a huge significance to the Supernatural universe, around which the story seems to revolve or have played a key part in changing the course of a storyline… It hardly seems fair that Baby gets all the attention just because she’s shiny._
> 
> _After the Impala, what object is the second most important out there in the supernatural universe? Explain in detail why your choice deserves the title._

 ([x](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/156886981553/the-great-meta-scavenger-hunt-round-7-the-most))

So, I made a list:

 (all images by courtesy of [homeofthenutty](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fhomeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Findex.php&t=NWUxZjA1NDExNjVhMTc2YWIwNzQyNWVmY2QxZmQ1YmVlNzRkNjE5YyxOMGNSRWxRdA%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F156907479957%2Fthe-great-meta-scavenger-hunt-round-7-the&m=1))

**The Men of Letters Bunker**

Baby of course is the Winchester’s home. That is why she is so important, but also why her story is so sad. Because after all a car shouldn’t be a home, no matter how much you romanticise it. If Baby is the symbol for the Kripke era, then the bunker becomes the symbol for the Carver era. If Kripke glorified Sam and Dean’s unbreakable bond, then it was up to Carver to show us how unhealthy their relationship can be and finally give two grown men their own rooms and a place they can return to. A place where Dean can be nesting, where they can bring in their extended family, a home. Apart from that an underground bunker full of lore and magical artefacts, warded against almost everything, is kinda super cool. I wonder if they got that ping pong table yet.

Mystical powers: 9/10 (full of cool stuff, can’t be tracked, magical wi-fi)

Personal significance: 9/10

Total: 18/20

**The Samulet**

The single most important jewellery in the world (until Dean and Cas get married).  Started as an object of personal significance (representing the brotherly bond between Sam and Dean), became then an object of great mystical power (glows in the presence of God) and later a symbol of trust, faith and betrayal (Dean trusted Cas with his amulet, Cas lost his faith after he couldn’t find God with it and Dean felt betrayed by Sam after the events of 5x16 which led him to throw it away). In a way it lost its personal value to Dean, as he tells Sam in 10x05 he no longer needs a symbol to remind him how he feels about his brother. Its mystical powers became 200 times more after Chuck used it in 11x20 to tell Sam and Dean that God is in da house (and revealed that he had turned it off the whole time). After Chuck’s departure to spend some quality time with his sister though it has lost its meaning to the story again.

Mystical powers: 10/10 (except when it’s turned off)

Personal significance: 6/10

Total: 16/20

**Weapons**

**The Colt**

Or the gun that was too good to be true. You could say the deus ex machina of weapons. So of course the show needed to find some limitations to the gun that could kill everything. First we only had five bullets left, but after we find out how to make new ones (thanks Ruby) the Colt was stolen and traded. With the devil on the loose the Colt made a comeback, only to have it revealed that the Colt can kill everything except five things and apparently archangels are one of them.

As cool as the concept sounded the show needed to find new ways why the Colt wasn’t the solution to everything, and ultimately got rid of it in season 5 .*

(*Which kinda reminds me of a certain angel, who was simply to powerful, so the show needed to find ways why he couldn’t help the Winchesters every time by either depowering him or giving him stupid quests. Just saying.)

Mystical powers: 8/10

Personal significance: 4/10 (it killed Yellow Eyes after all)

Total: 12/20

**Ruby’s knife**

Again, sounded way cooler on paper. In hindsight it feels like the show needed to introduce a quicker way to get rid of demons than using exorcisms every time, after they became a much bigger part of the story in season 3. It leads of course to the moral dilemma that they always kill the human possessed as well, and hardly use exorcism anymore (except if it is the mother of your potential son). One of Sam’s reason to justify his demon blood drinking in season 4 was to further develop his ability to exorcise demons with his mind, and therefore save the human. Of course it was the beginning to his path to the dark side, so we got back to the knife. At least it looks pretty.

Mystical powers: 6/10 (hey, it can only kill demons, not almost everything)

Personal significance: 1/10 (it is Sam’s daily reminder of Ruby)

Total: 7/20

**Angel blades**

As we learned in 12x10 every angel has apparently their own blade and angels can tell them apart. It is also the very thing that marked Asa Fox as legit, according to Dean. The only weapon that can kill angels too (unless you are an archangel or God/God’s sister and can simply make them explode). We still haven’t figured out where exactly angels hide these things or if they materialize out of thin air each time they need one. Perfect weapon for a twirl and to show off.

Mystical powers: 7/10

Personal significance: 10/10 (if you are an angel)

Total: 17/20

**Dean’s gun**

Or the most beautiful gun I have ever seen. In dire need of a backstory: where did he got it from? Does it have a personal value to him? Or does he just like the way it looks? (Also, Lady Toni appears to have a similar gun, as spotted in 11x23.)

Mystical Powers: 0/10

Personal significance: 5/10 (Basically, we just don’t know)

Total: 5/20

 **Honourable mentions:** the grenade launcher

**Cas’s trenchcoat**

Symbol of Cas’s angelhood (the few times he didn’t wear it he was almost always human). Symbol of Cas’s otherness (angels have a thing for suits in general, it is the coat that sets Cas apart). Symbol of Destiel – season 7. Symbol of Cas accidently cosplaying Constantine. You got it.

Mystical powers: 4/10 (I bet there is some angel magic woven into it, because the thing seems to repair/clean itself)

Personal Significance: 10/10

Total: 14/20

 **Honourable mentions:** Sam’s purple dog shirt, Dean’s leather jacket (version 1), all that plaid

**Cas’s pimpmobile**

After losing his wings it allows Cas to still travel. It is also one of the few things that truly belong to Cas alone (the coat was technically Jimmy’s). And no matter what Sam says, it is not crappy.

Mystical powers: 0/10

Personal significance: 10/10

Total: 10/20

 **Honourable mentions:** Mary’s sweet ride in 12x06

**John’s journal**

These days it is only brought back when deceased family members show up (Henry, Mary) and the Winchesters don’t have the heart to tell them what a horrible father John was. But it used to be the Winchesters number one source of research, even though I’m sure there was a better way to get all the (more accurate) information on the internet even back in 2005. The reason Sam almost got killed by vetalas back in 7x11.

Mystical powers: 0/10

Personal significance: 7/10

Total: 7/20

**Photo of young Dean with Mary**

Or the photo Dean seemed to carry around for decades before finally taking it out of his wallet and placing it on his nightstand in 8x14, symbolizing that Dean sees the bunker as his home. The same photo prevented Dean from killing Sam in 10x23. Apparently Dean made a bigger version of it and framed it, as seen in 11x22, where Amara holds up, realizing what Dean needs the most is his mother, and thus returns her to him by the end of 11x23. Hold by Dean in 12x02 as he tries to reconcile the image he had of his mother and the real person who just returned to his life. Seen by Mary herself in 12x09, helping her making the decision to help Alicia and Max with their hunt, as this is the legacy of her son. Bringer of many feels.

Mystical powers: 0/10

Personal significance: 10/10

Total: 10/20

**Hellhound glasses**

As cool as it is to be able to see hellhounds I only added them here because Sam and Dean looked super hot in them. Nuff said.

Mystical powers: 7/10

Personal significance: 0/10

Total: 7/20

  
  


**Various typewriters**

Marks you as the author of the story. Subtle way of showrunners to insert themselves in the show. Sometimes used to hide angel blades and as clever Fringe references.

Mystical powers: 0/10 (Winchesters have a tendency to not act according to the script)

Personal significance: 2/10

Total: 2/20

( **Bonus:** the non-existent bunker sofa. The moment they get it will be the object to make Destiel canon. Or say I have heard.

Mystical powers: 10/10

Personal significance: 10/10

Total: 20/20)

**Ranking**

1.       The MoL bunker 18/20

2.       Angel blades 17/20

3.       The Samulet 16/20

4.       Cas’s trencoat 14/20

5.       The Colt 12/20

6.       Cas’s pimpmobile 10/20

6.       Photo of Dean & Mary 10/20

7.       Hellhound glasses 7/20

7.       John’s journal 7/20

7\.       Ruby’s knife 7/20

8.       Dean’s gun 5/20

9\.       Various typewriters 2/20


	8. Unsung heroes - TGMSH Round 8

**Unsung heroes - TGMSH Round 8**

The task:

> **_Unsung hero (50 points):_ **
> 
> _Make a list of of your top characters that only appeared one time on Supernatural, or just pick one and write a really long eulogy about them._
> 
> _Explain why you think said character(s) were special/need to come back/ hopefully got their happy end far away from the Winchesters_
> 
> _(Bonus points for picking several characters from different episodes and linking them together through a common theme) ([x](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/157152978768/the-great-meta-scavenger-hunt-round-8-who-is))  
> _

Here we go:

(all screencaps from [screencaped.net](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fscreencapped.net%2Ftv%2Fsupernatural%2F&t=NTZhNDlhMWMwMzJiOGVmNmYyOTNkZTMyODMwMzFjYWFlYjlhMTFiNCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) or [homeofthenutty](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fhomeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Findex.php&t=MjA0MzM2YjI1YWQ2Y2IzNGNmODQ5MGJlOGY1YTI3ZWRlOTkxZGQ4NCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1))

**Season 1 Ladies**

**Who:** Missouri Moseley (1x09), Layla Rourke (1x12), Cassie Robinson (1x13)

**Why should they come back:**

[**Missouri:**](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DMissouri_Moseley&t=M2M1YWM1MTY5Y2I1MTYxODA4MDlkNjgxNGI0NjFmNzQwMDg3MTI1NCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) First of all I like Loretta Devine, which is enough reason. Second, Missouri was always meant to come back (in 1x22) but was replaced by a character named Bobby Singer (whoever the hell that is). I think she is tied too close to the Winchester’s family history not to bring her back, especially now with the return of Mary and all the references to older seasons. We know Mary already vistited Lawrence again and that she read John’s journal, where he mentioned Missouri. And given that Mary is a hunter she might even knew Missouri before her death. Though given the British MoL attitude towards psychics it might be safer not to bring her back. 

**[Layla:](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DLayla_Rourke&t=ZTZmNWQ5NzRjNWEzZWQyMDZjOTk0MWUwM2RiYTIxMWZiMzJlZjQyNixZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) **1x12 will always remain one of my all time favourite episodes. It’s the first time a Winchester cheats death and gives us a deep inside into Dean’s character and his fundamental believe that he doesn’t deserve to be saved. Opposed to that we have Layla, who has an inoperable brain tumor. By the time we met her the doctor gives her six months. Despite this her faith remains strong ( “ _I guess if you’re going to have faith you can’t just have it when the miracles happen_ ” ). Chances are small she is still alive, but hey, the Winchesters aren’t the only ones to get a miracle from time to time. Worst case she made a deal (all the desperate people still waiting to get healed would have been perfect targets for any crossroad demon), so by the standard 10-year-deal she is still dead now. But Layla was a woman of faith, so I doubt she would have made a deal with the devil. What if though her faith got rewarded? We know that before season 4 angels were rarely allowed to use a vessel, but 12x10 showed us under certain circumstances they still did. So what if Layla got healed by an angel? Or became the vessel of one? This way the show could easily bring her back. Either way, I hope she got her miracle. 

[**Cassie:** ](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DCassie_Robinson&t=MzhlZjVmZWMxMzIyYzMzY2VjOWEzMjljMzI3YWMzMmUwYWMwMTQyMyxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1)I admit, I wish her back for full Destiel shipper reasons. Besides appearing on one of the shows worst episodes (racist trucks!), Cassie was an awesome character, who could totally kick Dean’s ass. And I want her back, not to rekindle her affair with Dean, but to meet our other Cas(sie) and watch Dean and Cas bickering like the old married couple that they are and go “Ohhhhhhhhh”. Cut to awkward “I’m glad you found someone special in your life”-talk. 

 

****Monster kids**   
**

******Who:** Michelle Montgomery & her unborn child (4x04), Bobby John (6x02), Jacob Pond (7x03), Jesse Turner (5x06)  
  
 **Why should they come back:**  
  
With the season’s nephilim plot we come back to a question that has been rather prominent before in Supernatural, especially in season 2 and with the special children: does the darkness inside us determines who we are and who we are going to become? All of the children mentioned here didn’t choose to be what they are, the same way Sam never did. They were born with inhuman powers, that they could use for desdruction, if they choose to act on it. And that is the point here: choice. We already know the British MoL attitude towards such children: the fact alone that could become dangerous makes them a threat and therefore they must be killed. Over the course of 12 seasons the Winchesters though learned that when it comes to monsters not everything is black and white. Some monsters deserve to live. And sometimes it turns out the humans are the real monsters after all. All the children above have a reason to come back, if only to take their revenge on the Winchesters.  
  
[ **Michelle Montgomery**](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DMichelle_Montgomery&t=ZDE4NDQxOGE1YTJjMGVmNzZhZjE3YTM5MjU3YjU0Y2VlN2FhMmMyMyxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) was married to Jack Montgomery, a rugara. Rugarus are the result of genetic mutations, so chances are her child (that would be 8 by now) is a rugaru as well. Jack though appeared to be human well into his adult life, before he started to change, so chances are the kid doesn’t pose to be a threat yet. Still, Sam killed its father, so it would have reason enough to be after the Winchesters.   
  
[**Bobby John**](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DBobby_John&t=OGZlYTYxYWEyY2Q1MGQzNzU3NWZjZjM3YTc3MmQ1YWI1NWFkNTY1YyxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) was one of the babies the Alpha shapeshifter produced. If he (it? do shapeshifters have a gender?) is still alive, chances are he was raised by other shifters, who taught him to hate all hunters.  
  
[ **Jacob Pond**](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DJacob&t=MTQ2MzRlMGJjZjhkNjAyMTUwMWNiOGM5MTE0ZjY3NjdlNzgxZTczZCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) was the son of Amy Pond, Sam’s first love and a kitsune that Dean killed despite the fact she lived her life without hurting humans (of course she worked as a Cas parallel in the episode, so her fate was alredy sealed). Jacob witnessed the murder of his mother and swore Dean to kill him one day, in true Bill Kill fashion.   
  
[**Jesse Turner**](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DJesse_Turner&t=NTYxOGQ0Y2NhODJlOGM2MDk0Zjk3MTBlOGJiN2QyN2RjYjcxMGQ3ZSxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) of course was the antichrist, was way to powerfull, and in the end noped himself out of the episode off to Australia. Til today I am still surprised that the show introduced a character so powerfull, just to write him out and never mentioned him again, or more so to bring him back. From all the monster kids he would be the best choice to bring back, as he parallels the nephilim the most (Jesse is half-demon&half-humam, whereas the nephilim is half-archangel&half-human). We could see a postive example of someone who either refuses to use their power at all or instead does something good with it. And someone who could guide Kelly and her kid, and protect them as well.   
  


**Hunters**

**Who:** Jesse & Cesar (11x19), Eileen Leahy (11x11), Annie Hawkins (7x19), Aiden & Josephine (8x18), Dorothy Baum (9x04), Alicia & Max (12x06), Delphine Seydoux (11x14)

**Why should they come back:**

I always like it if the show introduces us to new hunters, who might have a different approach to hunting than the Winchesters or know something they don’t know. Though two of them are already dead and technically one is a woman of letters rather than a hunter I would love to see all those faces again. Then again for a hunter to return to Supernatural is something like a death penalty, so it might be better they stay where they are and remain safe. 

**[Jesse&](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DJesse_Cuevas&t=YTZhY2NlM2NlMDUzMGJmMmE1MjY5ZTNkNmJlOTU2YjAzYWEyNjU2OCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) [Cesar:](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DCesar_Cuevas&t=OGEyZjU3YWM4ODc1ZjA3OTYxOWZmYTA3ZjU3Zjc5OTc5MTI5MGM5MCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) **They are officially retired, but we know hunters never give up hunting completely (see Mary). I admit though that I am so used to see gay romance end up in tragedy that I was surprised they both made it out alive through 11x19. Also, I want them back for the same shallow reason I want Cassie back: to see Dean and Cas in their natural enviroment and come to their own conclusion. Other than that we can always use more LGBT-characters on the show.

[ **Eileen:**](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DEileen_Leahy&t=YjU5YzcxMzVhM2Y0ZWMzM2JjNDM1OWExNWIxNmE1ODc3YmRlMzk4MSxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) Technically not only a hunter but a woman of letter as well. Did the British MoL already tried to recruit her? Needs to come back because she a) kicks ass, b) is a disabled character (representation matters) and c) has the hots for Sam. #givesamagirlfriendandapuppy2k17

[ **Annie:**](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DAnnie_Hawkins&t=ZWNiZjY3OTQ5ZTQwZjg0MmFmYzAyMmU0MWJmYjk3OGY1ZWZhOGQwMSxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) I know she is already dead and walked into the light. But she kicked ass and is so far the only lady we know who had the pleasure to dance the horizontal tango with both Winchesters (and well Bobby). And she owned it. Best candidate for a flashback episode. 

**[Aiden&](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DAiden&t=OWVhMzc4YjE5MTBmZGNiOTI4ZjMwNjJkYmJjMjg5MzBiYjcyODBhZCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) [Josephine:](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DJosephine_Barnes&t=YWEyMTJjYzNhOTAzMGQ1Zjk4Zjc5ZmNjMDI2N2ZkYmVmZGY0NDA3MSxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) **Technically that would involve Krissy as well, right? Either way, they are not only hunters, but they also represented found family rather beautiful. Chances are they might gave up hunting and found their happiness somewhere else, but whatever they do I hope they are still together.

 **[Dorothy:](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DDorothy_Baum&t=MzQ4OWRkYjVmYTFjN2Y5YTk4Njc0ODllODkwMmMyZGU3NTBjMWNjZCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) **You can’t say Dorothy without Charlie. Either we get a heartbreaking episode where Dorothy learns about Charlie’s death or she comes back with some new knowledge about the magic in Oz, and it turns out Charlie is still alive and kicking. A girl can dream. Nevertheless Dorothy is too awesome not to return.

 **[Alicia&](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DAlicia_Banes&t=YWIxZWJkNDY3YzBjZmVmZTY2ZGRiMDJhMjQ1ODAxMmNkZjdlY2JjYSxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) [Max:](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DMax_Banes&t=NDMwYmI0YzdmY2EyOGU1MzAxZTIzYWYyOTI0OTdhOWRiOWQyODRkNCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1)** What makes them special is the fact that they are not only hunters but also witches. And we all yearn for witch!Sam, so they could teach him a few tricks. Also Max is another LGBT-character. Then again, what exactly think the British MoL of witches?

 **[Delphine:](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DDelphine_Seydoux&t=OTJhYWEyMDVjOGQ0M2FiMDFiNzdkZDM4YmM1ZGVkYWJlNGNkZmExOCxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1) **Technically both dead & a woman of letters rather than a hunter. Too glamerous not to return. Next to Annie another perfect candidate for a flashback episode. Also we need more Nazi-killing women on this show.

**Honourable mention**

**Tractor angel**

[What is not to love about him?](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Flumosnerd.wordpress.com%2F2014%2F04%2F07%2Fsupernatural-flashback-season-9-tractor-angel%2F&t=YzE4MmY3ZWQzOGNkZmU4NzdlMWE3YzFmNDU4MjdkNTEyNWRmNDc5OSxZVHlZaWR2cQ%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F157414556667%2Funsung-heroes-tgmsh-round-8&m=1)


	9. Rosie's meta challenge, round 1

[@rosie-berber meta challenge, round 1.](http://rosie-berber.tumblr.com/post/169083002358/1-a-con-cliche#notes)

**What prop (besides Baby) would you steal?**

(Images taken, as usual, from [Homeofthenutty](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fhomeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Findex.php&t=ZmQ2NjhlNjhkNDY2YzIwYjA2ZDBmZmRkZmQwYTA2MzI4MGYzYjE3OSxIYkxscmowZg%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F169201664717%2Frosie-berber-meta-challenge-round-1-what-prop&m=1))

**1\. The Journal**

This was my first choice. Interestingly enough I wouldn’t pick the journal so much for what it represents in the show. In the show it is a symbol for John, for Sam and Dean’s childhood, a chronicle of the first years without Mary/as a hunter and of course a hunter’s tool. This is how the journal was introduced to us, as a tool for research, the first place to look at whenever they approached a new monster. Over the years the journal became less relevant - the reason for this is obvious. None of the information that can be found in the journal can not also be found on the internet, way quicker, more detailled and updated. And so the journal became a family heirloom. It made its comeback in season 12 when Mary returned, who used the journal to catch up on her husband’s life and that of her children after her death. The journal is no longer a tool, the value only sentimental. 

So why would I choose the journal? I admit I am not very fond of John and his character and how he raised his children. However the prop represent a fundamental element of the show’s origin and I am still amazed by all the time and effort they put in to create it. Everything is handwritten, at times you can even see little drawings. It is personal, it is unique, it is their family’s history.

 

**2\. The Mixtape**

I mean, how could I not pick this? Is there any other prop that represents Destiel that much? I would love to know what songs are on the tape, though I am sure the prop department didn’t go as far as actually putting songs on this. A lot of meta has already been written about the mixtape, from the fact that mixtapes are almost exclusively used as a romantic trope, over the heavy [Arwen/Aragorn vibes](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FJAPduImlY-k%3Ft%3D213&t=YjkyNDgyNTE2MTQxZmFkZWJjNGM1NGQ1OGMyYjhiMWQxMTg1ODRmZSxIYkxscmowZg%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F169201664717%2Frosie-berber-meta-challenge-round-1-what-prop&m=1) Cas’s attempt to give it it back gave us. And it is the fact that Cas tried to give it back that represents another aspect of their relationship: the miscommunication. Cas, who doesn’t understand the gesture, and Dean who is hurt because of it. And of course the mixtape tells us yet another thing: that Dean and Cas’s relationship continues offscreen. We never saw the moment when Dean made the mixtape or gave it to Cas or Cas’s reaction. We don’t know if Cas listened to it (and if he liked what he heard). Or in other words: just because something isn’t in the text doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. 

So yeah, I would steal the mixtape as well, for all the Destiel reasons, but also because of the meta implications.


	10. Rosie's meta challenge, round 2

**Rosie’s meta challenge aka “They Stay Weird Symposium” Round 2:**

**The Red Headed Stepchild**

Idea provided by yours truly.

[The task](http://rosie-berber.tumblr.com/post/169442653763/2-the-red-headed-stepchild):

> _Choose one of these lesser-loved installments in the series and present a brilliant argument as to why it should be redeemed in the eyes of other fans._
> 
> _**Your choices:** _
> 
> _1X08 “Bugs”_
> 
> _3X13 “Ghostfacers”  
> _
> 
> _4X12 “Criss Angel is a Douchebag”  
> _
> 
> _5X05 “Fallen Idols”  
> _
> 
> _6X14 “Mannequin 3: The Reckoning“  
> _
> 
> _7X08 “Season Seven, Time for a Wedding!“  
> _
> 
> _8X04 “Bitten”  
> _
> 
> _“9X20 Bloodlines”  
> _
> 
> _10X04 “Paper Moon”  
> _
> 
> _11x19 “The Chitters” (MY HEART STILL CANNOT ACCEPT THE REALITY THAT THIS IS THE LOWEST RANKED EPISODE OF S11)  
> _
> 
> _12x21 “There’s Something About Mary”_

First of all, in the name of sciene, let me say, IMDB is in no way representive. Neither is Rotten Tomatoes or any other site where users can rank movies and shows/episodes. For that every single Spn fan should have ranked every single episode in a fair way. Because yes, you can manipulate those rankings. Second, what is good and what is bad is in the end still a very subjective choice. 

That being said, I have to say there are some episodes on this list that honestly surprised me and I can only assume why there are here. 11x19 I think for obvious homophobic reasons, so I am not even going there. But what is the case with 8x04 and 10x04? I can only assume that 8x04 was to out of the box for some viewers. It is a found footage episode, told from an outsider POV and with very little Sam and Dean in it. Personally I love the episodes that are told from a different perspective, episodes like 6x04, 6x20 or 11x04. I remember that early on on New Who there were a couple of [Doctor-lite episodes](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftardis.wikia.com%2Fwiki%2FDoctor-lite&t=Y2RjMjBmZmFiNWYwODUzZDJjMTU1Njg1YTdmM2U5NTBiMjM4YWU0OSxrcnBMTVJ5Yg%3D%3D&b=t%3AmZ74xsg2zq_qvub1chY1lg&p=http%3A%2F%2Fnerdylittleshit.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F169695028757%2Frosies-meta-challenge-aka-they-stay-weird&m=1), some of which I would say were among the best Doctor Who episodes, but that were never fan favourites because of the absence of the Doctor. I only assume the same happened with 8x04 and for whatever reason the aversion against Kate carried over to 10x04. Not that she deserved it.

There are of course some episodes that deserve to be on this list, because there is no way you can defend 9x20 (looking very hard the only postive thing I can say about it is that they used The Black Keys in it. And all the super obvious Destiel parallels). 

My choice however is 6x14. It would be too easy to defend 11x19 or 8x04, episodes that I actually loved. 6x14 for some reasons has always been among my top five episodes of the worst episodes of Spn. For one simply reason: it is pointless. They couldn’t save the girl and Dean and Lisa break up for good and the whole episode leaves you unsatisfied, because nothing is gained and everything seems hopeless. So what even is the point? 

While I would still say there is a lot of room left for improvement I tried to look at this episode with a different perspective. And it surpringsingly comes back to _Star Wars: The Last Jedi_. Now, if you follow my blog you know that I loved the movie and would defend it everyday. Among the many things people disliked about the movie was a certain sequence in the middle of the movie, where two characters go on a secret mission, but ultimately fail to succeed in their mission. So again, whats the point, some people asked. But, I would argue, social commentary, character development, and in the end one of the core themes of the movie: that failure is your biggest teacher (because almost every character in this movie fails in one way or another and is forced to learn from their mistakes). The point of the secret mission wasn’t to get what they needed, but what it told us about the world _Star Wars_ is set in and how our characters responded to it and were changed by it. 

Going back to 6x14 I would argue that the episode and their failed hunt tells us something important about one of the season’s biggest themes: lack of agency. This starts with Dean and the fact that Bobby, Cas and Sam decided on his behalf that it was better for him not to know that Sam was back and hunting. They each decided that the apple pie life he had with Lisa and Ben was what he really wanted, witholding him information so that he was never able to make an informed choice. Later on Dean decides on Sam’s behalf that he should get his soul back, even though Sam expressed that this was not what he wanted. Samuel, Crowley and Cas withheld crucial information to Sam and Dean about their plan to find a way to purgatory. It was a season full of lies and abused trust, with characters forced to make choices, even though they had not all the information they needed. 

In 6x14 Ben is the one who lies to get Dean back and in the end it is Lisa who gets her agency back, when she decides to let Dean go for good, realzing that her hope he might return to her kept her from moving on. 

> _LISA: […]You know, I…I can’t. Ask for something. I know what I want. But I can’t have it – Not how you live. My phone rings, I think – tiny chance it’s you, big chance it’s Sam calling to tell me you’re dead._
> 
> _DEAN: Lis…_
> 
> _LISA: No, don’t. Don’t apologize or anything. It’s just… It’s just I get to this place where I’m okay, and then you show up at our door. You keep doing that, every time I think I’m never gonna see you again. I’m trying to get over you._

While investing their case however they found out that the ghost killing people (Rose) is tied to her sister Isabel, who carries a part of her kidney with her. It is an impossible situation: as long as Isabel lives the ghost of her sister is able to kill people. The episode ends however with Isabel’s death (killed by a possesed Baby), leaving Sam and Dean hopeless. 

> _DEAN: […] I mean, what exactly did we do back there, Sam?_
> 
> _SAM Yeah, I’m not putting it in the win column, either._
> 
> _DEAN: We saved a few dicks, a-a-and we killed an innocent girl. I got a heartbroken kid and a woman who’s so pissed at me…I see what you mean about facing your past. It’s, uh -  It’s awesome. Thanks._
> 
> _SAM: Dean._
> 
> _DEAN: I mean, all we do is make a mess._
> 
> _SAM: That’s not true. We do save lives, now and again._

The one thing left Dean always defined his worth on - the amount of lives he has saved - is taken away from him here. There was no win for him. Again a lack of agency, quite literary, as the one thing that represents his soul - Baby - got possesed and killed (accidently) an innocent person. Seeing as this episode is in the middle of the season it is meant to represent the season’s theme without presenting us a conclusion. The fact that there is seemingly no point in it is exactly the point. To fail and to doubt yourself, but to get up the next day anyway and try to do better.


	11. Rosie's meta challenge, round 3

**Rosie’s meta challenge aka “The Stay Weird Symposium” Round 3**

**Avenged Refrigerators**         

[The Task:](http://rosie-berber.tumblr.com/post/169971115738/3-avenged-refrigerators)

> _If given the power of Chuck to resurrect one of our fallen sisters, who would you choose? Why?_
> 
> _(I fully anticipate this to be a #teamcharlie v. #teameileen battle to the death)_
> 
> _(Because choosing one or the other is truly a hellish proposition)_
> 
> _(Too bad. Choose one or the other. I am a cruel and capricious challenge organizer.)_
> 
> _(Or neither! I want to hear hearty arguments in favour of Jo! Ellen! Alicia Banes! Extra points.)_

My initial reaction was: bring them all back. Please. But of course, I have to choose, and I, as everyone else, would love to see Charlie and Eileen return. Though I have read enough conspiracy theories to convince myself that they are in fact not dead. And I assume other people to write novels about why we should bring these awesome women back. So I’m gonna choose a different character fandom seems to forget about, that I loved dearly, and that was written out of the show in a horrible way: **Anna Milton**. 

[Originally posted by godshipsit](https://tmblr.co/ZiTNfi28VG-HJ)

There are many reasons why I loved this character and why she should return, even if it was only for one episode (I even take a flashback episode).

**1\. The Original Rebel**

[Originally posted by estrelecer](https://tmblr.co/ZoNgCw1m2uFLg)

 

Long before Cas started to rebel there was Anna. She is the original rebellious angel, if we don’t count Lucifer, which we won’t because he is a dick. She cut out her own grace (!) in order to become human, to experience human emotions and live a human life. I always considered Anna’s arc as a blueprint for Cas’s ultimate endgame, which I believe is choosing to become human as well. And Anna’s choice to take back her grace and therefore sacrificing her human body/human life in order to help Dean is later mirrored with Cas’s choice to become an angel again midseason 9. Anna was the first one to question her father, her mission, her angelhood and who choose humanity/human emotions over her angelic family. It was her return, along with meeting Dean, that started Cas’s journey of self discovery. 

**2\. Anna & Cas**

[Originally posted by kissthenightair](https://tmblr.co/ZbNU4u130gYkX)

These two have a history and I want to know everything about it. We know that Anna was Cas’s superior, and even after she fell he asked her for advice, to tell him what to do. We later learned that Cas has a history of not following orders as well, but that angels like Naomi took away his memories and manipulated him. Did the same happen to Anna? Did she try to convince Cas to fall with her, knowing that he has doubts himself? I always felt like Anna’s fall felt like a personal betrayal to Cas, that there was more to it than Anna breaking the rules. I would love to see another episode that shows us Cas’s past before he met the Winchesters, like 12x10, where we see him disobey, maybe together with Anna. I would be happy if Cas at least mentioned Anna again and tells us more about their relationship. 

**3\. Anna & Dean**

[Originally posted by subcas](https://tmblr.co/ZmDUpm2ME83KP)

If it wasn’t for Cas and Destiel I admit that Anna/Dean is my favourite Dean-ship. Anna knew what Dean had done in hell and she showed him forgiveness, so that one day he might be able to forgive himself. She also used Dean’s best line on him, so there is that. I would have loved to see human!Anna with all her angelic knowledge becoming a hunter and helping Sam and Dean. Or of course angel!Anna, rebelling once again for Dean. I love fan fiction that includes Anna (usually AU’s), that portrays her as the awesome character she was in season 4, shows her importance in Cas’s life and the connection she had with Dean. Anna and Dean shared a deep bond as well, a genuine connection, and I really liked this ship as long as it lasted. 

**4\. Anna & Cas & Dean**

[Originally posted by classicspnsource](https://tmblr.co/Zkgtdk20rfcsp)

We can’t talk about Anna and Dean though without mentioning Cas and Destiel as well. As I mentioned I see Anna’s arc as a blueprint for Cas’s journey, and this includes her relationship with Dean. Both were aware of what Dean did in hell and believed that despite that that Dean was worth saving. Anna & Dean represented the first angel/human romance on the show (yes, technically she was still human then, but to Cas and Uriel she was still an angel). We know that angels have strict rules about this, sacred oaths and all that jazz. And yet when Cas witnessed Anna and Dean kissing in 4x10 we didn’t see disgust, but rather curiousity and jealousy (and I think it is completely open of whom he is jealous here). The Anna-Cas-Dean love triangel is defenitely a thing, as all three of them have complex relationships with each other. And then of course Cas’s arc was original meant to end midseason 4 and he has later been given some of Anna’s arc. Also, I haven’t found a Anna/Dean/Cas threesome fic yet, but I would be happy to read one. 

**5\. Redemption arc**

[Originally posted by endiness](https://tmblr.co/ZO39Py2J-lxTI)

And after this Anna love fest I know what you might be saying: but didn’t she wanted to kill Sam? Well first of all, almost everyone wanted to kill Sam at some point (including Dean), it is how we show that we care. Second, she wanted to kill him to prevent the apocalypse from happening. Not because she was evil or had nothing better to do. She wanted to save lives and stop the plan Michael has set in motion. Also, she was clearly manipulated by heaven. This wasn’t one hundred percent clear by the time 5x13 aired, but Naomi later confirmed that this is a regular thing in heaven in season 8. I always hated that they had to make her into a villian in order to justify to kill her off (and look, the same happened with Cas in season 6). Anna in 5x13 was a complete different character than Anna in seson 4. If the show wants to give an angel a redemption arc let it be Anna, and not Lucifer.

That’s all folks =)


End file.
